Fort Worth Stockyards

Friday, February 29th

Happy Leap Day!

I took today off work and took Mom, Dad, Aunt Mary and Uncle Martin to the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Dad and Martin enjoyed seeing and hearing the Superior Livestock Auction. They can often be found watching a cattle or horse auction on RFD TV. Buyers are able to view and buy cattle from areas all across the country. Sellers benefit from the fact that their cattle are videotaped in their natural environment and don’t move until the delivery date.

Superior has created a national livestock market, where price discovery is attained through competitive bidding at a live auction. Cattle are sold without regard to local climate conditions to a greatly expanded buyer base. In 2002 Superior Livestock Auction teamed up with RFD-TV on the digital dish. Today, Superior sells over 1.3 million head of cattle a year over the television.



The Fort Worth Stockyards opened in 1876 and made the area an important livestock center. Cattle could be bought for $2 - $4 a head and then driven up to the midwest area and sold for $30 - $40. Fort Worth was the last "big city" stop on the cattle drive so the cowboys loved to stop for some R&R (drinking, gambling, etc..) They also would stock up on some supplies. Fort Worth was operational up until 1972 when the last of the meat packing plants (Swift) closed. Armour had closed in the 1960s. Today the area is designated a historical district and many bars and nightclubs (including Billy Bob's) are located in the area. Every Friday and Saturday night, there is a rodeo in the Cowtown Coliseum and on Sundays there is an Opry.

Twice a day (11:30 am and 4:00pm) there is a Daily Cattle drive. Actual cowboys drive about 15 longhorn steers down the brick streets of Exchange Ave. When the cowboys are not driving cattle down the street, they are telling stories and taking photos with all the visitors.

We finished the day with a lunch at the TrailBoss and some shopping of homemade fudge and other assorted candies.