By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A move to sell the St. Joseph Stockyards came, in large part, due to timing.
Mark Servaes has owned the St. Joseph Stockyards since 2012 when he bought it from Canal Capital Corporation, which bought the stockyards in 1963. Servaes says several factors played a role in his decision, but the biggest factor might be that his seven-to-eight field representatives are all in the 70s or 80s.
“Can’t find anybody young to do what they do, because there’s a lot of experience here with those ages,” Servaes tells KFEQ Agriculture Director Dionne Bertling in an interview. “Just all kind of came together at one time. Wasn’t looking to do it, just had an opportunity and it looked like the right thing to do at the time.”
The St. Joseph Stockyards has 10 fulltime employees and can have as many as 40 working on Wednesdays, sale day at the stockyards.
Servaes still will not officially disclose who he has sold to and it is not known when the sale will be finalized.
The St. Joseph Stockyards owns five buildings and the stockyard pens spread out over 20 acres in south St. Joseph.
Servaes acknowledges the age of the facility has increased the cost of the operation. He adds he believes demand remains for a stockyards in St. Joseph.
“There needs to be something, somebody come back on board and get in this area, because it’s needed,” Servaes says. “Even with smaller receipts it would work. You just got to be able have a better handle on your cost and it’s hard to do it here with this aging facility and then where we’re located with some of the cost incurred here, being in the city.”
The St. Joseph Stockyards draws as many as 1,000 livestock producers from all over the four states of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. Servaes says some producers come from as far as 150 miles away to sell cattle at the stockyards.
The last livestock sale will be held on May 19th.
