Eric Jones helps unload the final of four trailer loads of cattle, totaling at 50 calves and around 40 cows Thursday morning to be sold in the regular cattle and special cow sales happening days later on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018 at the auction house in Marshall, Mo. Hosting a cattle auction every Saturday, with special auctions every other week, the stock pens are constantly in flux between different groups of cattle. After working with the same local producers for years, the auction will oftentimes help producers trailer in cattle in the days prior to a sale. The Sept. 15 auction was expected to be a big one leading to the early arrival of cattle. The prior weeks auction moved close to 150 head, small compared to the nearly 1400 head that ran through the week before.

After completing a vet check in the early morning before the sale start at 11 a.m., all cattle except calves receive a tag and if they don’t already have one, a federal ID bar tag. Marked for age or teeth condition of and colored coded for pregnancy cycle, the auction labels all cattle that run through the sale with these identifiers for speed and accuracy during the sale.

While waiting for the necessary new computer mouse to make the computer turn back on before the sale, Eric’s daughter climbs in and out of the sale ring, pausing only to put down her stuffed dairy cow named “moo moo” before changing locations again. Raising three kids in and around the barn, Eric’s kids are at the auction almost every Saturday - helping run gates when they get a bit older or running paperwork back and forth to the office when still younger.

Built on the back of family, the Jones Brothers Livestock Auction proudly displays a collection of photographs featuring the entire extended family that participates and supports the business on the main wall in the office. Eric and his brother Chris are the third generation of Jones to own and operate the sale barn in Marshall and have been raising their kids in the sale barn since birth. Keeping farms and agricultural businesses like the auction is important to Eric, and what he calls a fading lifestyle.

Making a stop in the cafe at the far, corner table between pre-auction duties, Eric holds nephew Eli, 3, who while talking with Eric’s grandfather, who founded the barn more than 30 years ago and was celebrating his 85th birthday at the barn, before the regular cattle auction on Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018. The cafe serves employees, family and friends and auction attendees breakfast and lunch throughout the day, even delivering plates of food to the more regular attendees outside the cafe in the stands of the auction house.

Beyond the operation of the livestock auction, Eric raises his own cattle herd and puts up his own hay making his work in the industry a year long investment. With roughly 350 acres of hay cut and waiting to be bailed, Eric spent the afternoon raking and bailing this 100 acre plot of foxtail and fescue mix for the second cut of the season. From the segment of the property that had already been bailed, the property was producing about three 1800 lb. bales to the acre.