Livestock auctions in south Texas have been operating all year despite COVID-19. This extremely tough year was not enough to silence the call of the auctioneer.
Doug Rally is a farmer in McAllen, Texas and has been going to auctions for decades. He says that he has seen things stay steady in recent months, but he never expected the events of 2020. The auction barn he attends had good times early in the year and it seemed that things were only going to get better.
According to Billy Guerra with Triple G Livestock Auction, “Everyone would show up, including, not only the buyers and the sellers, but we had extra people coming in like families and people wanted just to come see the sale barn...”
However, then came an event unlike anything we had seen in our lives, the global pandemic. There was still a need for beef, and this part of the country has a lot of cattle.
“This is an essential business for the food side and the money side, but basically we had to limit it just to buyers and really, for a while we’re just buyers,” Guerra notes. “Then we open it up to the sellers and buyers only, and we take extra precautions over there when we unloaded the cattle, and had to take extra precautions here in the ring and in the office.”
Now that we are seeing nationwide that the economy is recovering, we wanted to know if more cattle were selling at the auction.
Guerra says sales have remained steady in fall and there is more light at the end of the tunnel: “We’re starting to see more people show up on Fridays, our sale day. It’s starting to relax a little bit.”
He adds that it would be nice to have more potential business. For now, the gang here is hoping the journey in 2021 will not be so bumpy.
From Junior Heifer Shows to Mustang Magic competitions, the 23-day event brings together 4-H and FFA participants, livestock enthusiasts, and families to celebrate North Texas’ rich Western heritage.
