First person: Life with cattle

CNJ staff photo: Kevin Wilson Charlie Rogers said auction Wednesdays are the busiest, but there's always some kind of transaction going on at the Clovis Livestock Auction.

Clovis Livestock Auction president Charlie Rogers has been named to the Secretary of Agriculture’s Advisory Committee on Animal Health.

Rogers, 54, an Elida native, is serving a two-year term.

Local beginnings: I grew up in Elida on a farm, ranch and dairy combination. I went to ENMU and got a bachelor’s degree in ag business. My family owned the Roswell Livestock Auction for about 10 years. When we sold that, I came here.

My first memories would be sorting and tagging cattle. It doesn’t change a lot. Of course, we do a lot more with computers. But the outside work is basically the same.

The basics: There’s a cattle sale weekly, every Wednesday. We have a horse sale four times a year; it’s a weekend on a quarterly basis. We move about 2,500 (cattle each sale). Horses would be 500 or 600, four times a year. For cattle, buyers are mostly Texas and New Mexico. For horses, they come from all over the United States.

Not just Wednesday: We ship cattle and receive cattle seven days a week. You can unload cattle here any time, you can take cattle out any time.

The process starts on Monday, when the cattle arrive over the weekend. They’re processed and put in packages they’re going to be sold in. Tuesday, same thing.

We bring them through the auction block in those packages. They’ll be by size and by sex, and then they’re sold.

Let’s say there’s a group of 10. There are 10 steers that come into the auction. They’re weighed. The average weight, the total weight are shown on a display.

You’re always excited to get started because that’s what you’re here for. By the time you’re through, you’re usually tired.

In my free time: I’ve got cattle of my own, so I run some cattle. I spend some time checking them, taking care of them. I like playing golf when I have that opportunity.

If I could take two or three weeks off or a month off, I’d probably just travel the country. See things I haven’t seen, like Yellowstone Park, stuff like that.

Sense of community: We all become good friends through the years. We’re together every Wednesday.

I could see myself doing this another 15 or 20 years. I enjoy it. I’ve got a tremendous support staff, tremendous employees.

— Compiled by CNJ staff writer Kevin Wilson