The Oklahoma National Stockyards is for sale, but “new ownership does not mean that everything has to change,” says president Jerry Reynolds.
“There has been a lot of interest, and we have had offers. We are not under contract,” Reynolds said in late February. “All the people that have expressed interest, they know the importance of the stockyards continuing on as is, or at least some close variation of that.”
The stockyards company was founded in Oklahoma City in 1910, in conjunction with the opening of a packing house by the Chicago-based Morris and Company, now known as Armour. A second packing house opened the next year, and the stockyards and packing plants generated 2,400 new jobs in a city with a population of only 60,000, according to the nonprofit Stockyards City Main Street.
While the board chairman is a direct descendant of the founder, Reynolds mentions that no one in the family has an interest in taking over the operation. The board of directors of the publicly-traded company made the decision to sell, “but it’s not like we are trying to have a fire sale and dump that thing off.”
The stockyards handle 350,000 to 400,000 head of cattle every year, with the biggest sale day on Monday, Reynolds says. Multiple generations of a family will attend the sale, “then go by Cattleman’s and get a steak, and go to Langstons and buy a pair of jeans or a cowboy hat. It’s a destination location.”
The stockyards and Stockyards City are destinations for tourists as well as cattlemen.
“We get Route 66 tourists every week,” Reynolds says. “You wouldn’t believe the amount of agritourism we get every week – people who want to see the sale. The television series Yellowstone has reinvigorated people’s appreciation for the West.”
Stockyards City Main Street promotes the area southwest of downtown Oklahoma City as a cultural and business destination and sponsors events including business workshops, a Christmas Tree lighting, a “Wines of the West” festival and the Stockyards Stampede event.
Stocker feeder sales of 329,000 head last year were down 10% from the previous year, Reynolds says, but the Oklahoma National Stockyards remains one of the largest in the nation. Cows and bulls are also sold through the auction house.
“Joplin did more head than us last year, but they have a video auction and we don’t,” Reynolds says. “In size, we are as big or bigger than Joplin. But it’s not a competition to me or us.”
More than 130 families are supported by employment at the stockyards.
“The economic impact is well over $1 billion a year,” says Reynolds. “We are very sustainable.”
One thing that makes the operation unique is that “nine commission firms sell out of our facilities,” Reynolds says. “Commission firms have the connection with the producer, with the customer. They have been helping sell cattle here for a long time.”
The west side of the property is undeveloped, and Reynolds says he can imagine new ownership creating something in that area.
But, he says, the board would be unlikely to accept an offer “if they had any inkling that someone would come in and just doze it all down,” Reynolds says. “The potential lies solely in it being a stockyards.”
