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Show EJvesflcdx auctions, more vhan buying rad sellssig A livestock auction is much more than a place where farmers and ranchers ran-chers take their cows, pigs, sheep, horses, goats, and whatever else they have to be bought or sold. To go to an auction on Saturday morning mor-ning one might think every livestock producer in the area is going out of business, or perhaps everyone needs stock. You might expect a war among many to see who will buy a prize steer, or even an old milk cow. But that perception would be deceiving. Most of the people who come to the auction don't bring livestock to sell, nor do they come to buy. Most come simply to be a part of a long standing tradition. Last year that long standing tradition tradi-tion was in jeopardy when the only livestock auction in the Uintah Basin went out of business. It looked like, for the first time in over 40 years, the Uintah Uin-tah Basin would be without a livestock auction. But, on Oct. 2, 1982 Grant Gerber and Curtis Dastrup opened Basin Livestock Market in north Ballard, and the institution was back. The established farmers and ranchers ran-chers in the area returned to the auction, auc-tion, to occasionally buy and sell, but mostly just to be there. Although there may be as many as 100 or more people peo-ple watching the auction, usually 90 percent of the buying is done by five or less people. Grant Gerber says you only really need two buyers to have a fair auction. Most of the prices for livestock are set on a much larger scale than any one auction. The going price for any type of livestock is known to most people who follow the market before the sale even begins. If you have two buyers, neither is about to let the other "steal" the animal by buying it at a fraction of the going market price. But what would happen if one day only one buyer showed up? Gerber says his auction protects sellers from this unlikely possibility by always being be-ing a potential buyer. Gerber said there is no way they couid pay top dollar for an animal just to hold it over to the next sale, but they can make sure the price is reasonable. If only one buyer bids on a particular animal, Curtis Dastrup is there to bid against him. Dastrup is always in the ring, helping push the animals through, so he is always there if the bidding ends prematurely. If he can buy livestock a few cents lower than the current market price, he does. They hold the animal for a week, feed it in the auction auc-tion yards, and run it through the auction auc-tion the following week. All they have to lose is the feed, and hopefully the following week more buyers will show up. Gerber said they seldom find it necessary to bid. The buyers come from all over. One regular buyer comes from Denver, another from Salt Lake City, and others from other butcher houses. In order to accommodate their needs, Basin Livestock Market is on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If trucks roll in from Denver at 2 a.m. Tuesday, their cattle are loaded at 2 a.m. Tuesday. Tues-day. If the trucks fail to show up until the following week, Basin Livestock Market just feeds them and takes care of them until the trucks show up, for a fee, of course. In order to be fair, every service provided by the auction is charged on a per head basis. Stock is unloaded and loaded into trucks for a fee. The animals are also weighed and tested for a fee. And livestock that stays overnight over-night are fed for a fee. Gerber said this way people who use the facilities a lot, pay a lot, and people who use the facilities seldom don't subsidize the frequent user. Basin Livestock Market also gets 2 percent of the total sale. Utah is considered a "bangs-free" state, meaning there is no brucellosis in cattle in Utah. Brucellosis is a disesase that causes a cow to abort its calf prior to birth. Since the disease can be devastating to producers, state officials now require every female cow which comes through any auction to be tested, since surrounding states are not as lucky as Utah has been. In order to accommodate this law, and provide buyers and sellers with other services, a veterinarian is present at all sales. Buyers who do not have facilities of their own to vaccinate animals, or brand them, can do it right at the auction auc-tion before they leave. Animals can be given pregnancy tests and can be checked for the presence of disease. A brand inspector is also on hand. Law requires all livestock to be branded brand-ed within 30 days. The Basin Livestock Market holds sales every Saturday at 10:30 a.m. Generally they will run 200 to 300 head of livestock through the auction during dur-ing a sale, the majority of which are cattle. Besides the owners, only one of the 22 employees is fulltime. The others work during the sale, clean up after the sale, feed the livestock that are held over, or a variety of other chores that must be done to keep an auction running smoothly. Gerber said when the other auction closed its doors, it was only reasonable for Dastrup and himself to start another. Both have been in the livestock business all their lives, and both have owned farms in the Roosevelt area. And so, people continue to bring their livestock to the auction and others continue to buy, but more than that, people just keep coming to the auction, whether they intend to buy, sell, or just have a cup of coffee. ' : s ' ".- -:,:f '' ,;,"-': - . t ' i ;V- v. .5,rVw.. -:X ."."' j ; . siCn 9 , .. " ! , s i -----. -; Li lis 'j- , I .-if - -rmj IfTi, t. W -; U : i ' "4 : i nvi - o. . o '"-11 ., 1 J i'-- j J j , - 4 ) ' I i a - ( r . I "1 -J r- v.; (. ... v CONNIE DRISCOLL is one of 22 employees who work at the Basin Livestock Market. |