CALF_News_December_2018_January_2019

34 CALF News • December 2018 | January 2019 • www.calfnews.net At the age of 3, Joe Don Pogue attended cattle sales with his grandfather, a buyer for Cash Brothers Packing out of Dallas. It was the beginning of a career that started before he graduated from high school and continues to this day. At the age of 16, Pogue was selling cattle as part of a work study program. Every Thursday afternoon he left school to make the drive to Mt. Vernon where he was auctioneer. When he graduated, he went to work fulltime in auction barns across northeast Texas, working in the back moving cattle to and from the ring and then stepping behind the microphone to sell cattle. In 1984, Sulphur Springs Live- stock Auction owner David Fowler approached Pogue about starting a dairy auction in exchange for a percentage ownership. It was the beginning of a partnership that continues to this day. Within a few short years, that small taste of ownership had grown into a half interest in the auction facility. A Sulphur Springs, Texas, native, Pogue grew up milking cows before and after school on the family’s combination dairy and beef operation. He knew early By Chris McClure Contributing Editor Doing It All in Northeast Texas in life that his future would involve cattle and auctioneering. It’s a passion that has never wavered throughout his career. At some point in the 1990s, Pogue received a phone call that would expand his sphere of influence and involvement beyond northeast Texas. He had been doing a little order buying for a few years and had established a reputation for doing what he said he would do. That call, from Ray Simpson, was for a large order of Holstein steers that would be shipped to the Panhandle and put on feed at USA Feed Yard where Simpson was a partner. Simpson and Pogue developed a close working relationship over time that included order buying initially, but eventually developed into a partnership on several cattle trucks used primarily to ship Simpson’s cattle to him. Although never partnering with Simpson on cattle, Pogue decided to try feeding some of his own. He initially fed exclusively with USA because of his relationship with Simpson, but over time his feeding activ- ity expanded to other yards. A few years later, Simpson asked Pogue to become part of a partnership to purchase a feedyard at Wheeler, Texas. That was when he, Simpson, Charlie Risinger, Geoff Hicks and Alejandro Urias partnered to purchase what had been the Heritage Beef Yard and turn it into Wheeler Land & Livestock. Buying a feedyard caused Pogue to increase the number of cattle he fed due to the partnership agreement in which each of the owners committed to either feed, or bring customers to the yard, in propor- tion to their ownership. Knowing that yearling cattle work best in the feedyard, Pogue expanded his pre-conditioning and background- ing operation through. He has three different facilities in the Sulphur Springs area as well as wheat pasture that he uses to start cattle. Occasionally, he will send cattle to Triangle Calf Growers near Vega, Texas, for the same purpose. Of the cattle he starts, he will sell some and feed some, depending on the market opportunities. Typically, he will have between 1,000 and 2,500 yearling cattle on pasture or in a pre-conditioning lot at all times throughout the year. He turns them regularly and ships four to five loads per month. Pogue believes diversification is critical to success in the cattle business. Besides his feeding and pre-conditioning C E L E B R A T I N G PEOPLE