When tragedy hits, the ranching community comes together. At Tadlock Stockyard’s weekly cattle sale on Monday, Oct. 7, $33,000 was raised for those affected by the devastation from Hurricane Helene.
The Forest, Miss., stockyards owner David Tadlock says they posted on their Facebook page they would be passing the hat at their regular Monday cattle sale to collect donations for hurricane victims.
“One of my regular customers called me and said he wanted to donate a Brangus heifer to be auctioned off to raise money,” Tadlock says. “The first time we sold her, she brought $3,000, then the buyer said ‘sell her again.’ It all happened in about 10 minutes.”
The calf was resold 16 times while a hat was passed around for smaller cash donations. Additional donations have been made since the sale as well.
“This is what it’s about,” Tadlock says. “We have the best customers from all over rural America who are willing to help out those suffering from the devastating storms.”
All proceeds raised will be donated to Samaritan’s Purse and United Cajun Navy, who are working on relief efforts in the southeast.
Tadlock says they do not know anyone directly affected by the storms, but this shows what kind of farmers and ranchers he has as clients who would reach into their own pockets and help others in need.
“I think everybody in the stands dropped something in the hat by the time the sale was over,” he says.
Tadlock Stockyard is currently the largest livestock auction in Mississippi and has been family owned and operated for 100 years. Sales are held each Monday with cattle buyers and sellers from across the U.S.
“If we have 2,000 head of cattle, which we usually do, we’ll probably have 300 to 350 different customers selling cattle,” he says. “And we’ll have 70 to 80 different buyers.”
Cattle go to Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kentucky, to Florida, the Corn Belt, the Dakotas, and more, Tadlock says.
“We sell all classes of cattle, cull cows, breeding cows, and feeder cattle,” he says. “They go all over the United States, from rural Forest, Mississippi.”
David is the third generation and began running the yard at age 21. He and his wife, Sandy, are the owners and their two daughters, Greggina Tadlock Brown and Char’Lesa Tadlock, also work full time at the stockyard running the front office and managing the barn with them.
