America's last big-city stockyard in downtown Oklahoma City is up for sale

OKLAHOMA CITY — On the edge of a thriving downtown dotted with luxury hotels and trendy restaurants is a more than 100-year-old relic of Oklahoma City's western heritage: One of the world's largest cattle stockyards.

But maybe not for much longer.

The Oklahoma National Stockyards — the last big-city stockyard in the U.S. — is for sale. The $27 million price tag includes 100 acres (40 hectares) of prime property along the Oklahoma River in a growing city of roughly 700,000 residents, where a state-of-the-art NBA arena is set to break ground and a developer is pushing plans for the country's tallest skyscraper.

Although the stockyard's owners are hopeful a buyer will keep the cattle coming, they acknowledge the land is attractive for redevelopment.

The sale is a sign of the times for livestock auctions and America's cattle market, a volatile industry squeezed in recent years by drought, higher production costs and the lowest number of cattle in the U.S. since the 1950s.

President Donald Trump's imposition of tariffs on imported goods has created uncertainty in the industry, although the potential impact is not yet clear. The U.S. is the world's largest producer of beef but is still a net beef importer, with Canada and Mexico among the top countries accounting for U.S. beef imports.

The number of cattle moving through the maze of wooden pens in Oklahoma City is down roughly 20% over the past two years, said Jerry Reynolds, the stockyard's president.

The same family has owned the grounds since 1910, but Reynolds said younger generations of the owners are simply not interested in overseeing a major stockyard and the daily grind that entails: a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week operation with tens of thousands of animals auctioned every week and a seemingly endless maintenance to-do list.

''The handwriting has kind of been on the wall for a long time, as the cities grow and surround these facilities,'' said Derrell Peel, a professor at Oklahoma State University who studies cattle markets. ''Not only is that a prime piece of real estate, but the increasing challenges, the environmental challenges, of operating a stockyard in a major city, is pretty tricky.''

A rare big-city sight

The stockyard went on the market in October and the current owners do not have a timetable for completing the sale.

As many as 10,000 head of cattle still rumble each week through the stockyard, an urban survivor in an industry that is largely now scattered across rural America. One of the largest stocker/feeder cattle markets in the world, the Oklahoma City grounds are the last of the so-called ''terminal markets'' that dotted the Midwest, where cattle were shipped, sold, slaughtered and then processed at nearby packing houses.

In the mid-20th century, such stockyards thrived in bigger cities including Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, Nebraska, and Fort Worth, Texas. But with the advent of refrigeration and the increasing value of those properties in urban centers, they slowly transitioned to more rural areas closer to feedlots and meatpacking plants, according to Peel, a professor of agricultural economics.

If Oklahoma City's stockyard is shuttered, an auction market in Joplin, Missouri, would likely claim the title of the largest in the country, Peel said. That stockyard, a little more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Oklahoma City, as well as another large facility just west of the metro in El Reno, Oklahoma, would pick up much of the business, he said.

''As a member of the family that began the yards and has been involved throughout our entire 115-year history, obviously I have some feelings about the outcome there," said Chris Bakwin, chairman of the stockyard's board and one of the major shareholders in the company founded by his great-grandfather. ''But I have to do what's best for shareholders.''

Cowboys and cattle auctions

The stockyard's pens are set up on the original bricks laid during its construction more than a century ago. From a metal catwalk that runs over the stockyard, visitors can hear the thundering sound of hoofs and the yells of cowboys on horseback leading them into pens or running a few at a time into a small, tightly packed arena where buyers signal their interest to a fast-talking auctioneer.

On a recent January morning, rancher Garrison Duke, his wife Pamela, and their children, Pecos, 3, and 1-year-old Sterling, hauled a trailer full of cattle from their ranch in Lexington, on the outskirts of Oklahoma City.

Duke was a boy when he first started going to the stockyard with his father and, on a good trip, they would leave town with a full stomach after a steak dinner and perhaps a new pair of boots.

''It was just always a thrill, getting to see all the cattle and how they all handled them, seeing them sell and my dad get a big paycheck at the end of the year. It was good for everybody," Duke said. ''Now we're trying to keep the kids a part of it all."

‘It's our livelihood'

Adjacent to the stockyard is a business district filled with shops boasting western charm: Shorty's Hattery, National Saddlery, western wear stores and popular steakhouses. The area has become a tourist destination for travelers seeking a bit of Americana in the U.S. heartland.

Oklahoma City's population grew by 3% over the past few years, according to the Census Bureau, making it the nation's 20th largest city.

And while other stockyards in major cities have gone away, largely because of the increasing value of urban land, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt said he believes the stockyard can coexist in the center of a booming city.

''I do, probably for no other reason but that Oklahoma City is so geographically large," Holt said. ''It's not like the stockyards is in midtown Manhattan.''

Still, there is some fear among those who make their living at the stockyard that a buyer could have a different vision in mind.

''There definitely is,'' said Jason Baker, who owns one of the nine commission firms that buy and sell cattle at the stockyard. ''It's very vital for my family. It's our livelihood."