Jackson Progress-Argus

Joe Ezzard stands in the display ring where potential buyers can view the cattle.

Jackson — Joe Ezzard backs a truck up to the open gates to load a group of cattle onto a trailer from the complex series of pens at the barn located just off of Ga. Highway 16, outside the Jackson city limits.

It’s a common task for Ezzard. He has been working with cattle all his life, and to him, it’s not really much of a job at all.

“It’s a lifestyle,” said Ezzard. “I’m on call every hour of every day of every year. I don’t get to clock out. It’s just a way of life, and coming from a ranching family, it’s all I’ve ever known, really.”

While being a rancher might not be considered a job by Ezzard, the work he does, and the work cattle ranchers do all around the country, has a significant impact on many lives.

Ezzard, of Eatonton, manages the Mid-Georgia Livestock Market, which is one of 20 places in the state where individuals can buy and sell cattle. The cattle market is not a ranch, and while Ezzard does own his own cattle, the only ones here are to be bought and sold by others. On Thursday, Ezzard was loading onto a trailer a group of about 20 head that were sold the day before, for the owner to take away.

This market was one of three stops on the Explore Beef Tour, “a tour of Georgia’s beef cattle industry to promote accurate information surrounding the issues of environmental stewardship and animal care within our industry,” according to the Georgia Beef Board’s Director of Industry Information Brooke Williams. The tour, conducted last week, also made stops at Honeywood Farms in Barnesville and Buckhead Beef in Atlanta as part of its campaign to promote Georgia’s beef industry.

The livestock market, owned by Phil Harvey of Jackson, has beef cattle auctions every Wednesday, and dairy cattle auctions every other Monday -- the second and fourth Monday of each month. Ezzard said that most sellers bring their animals to him on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but he said he will hold them at the market for longer if needed. Wednesday is typically a busy day for Ezzard, because he and his staff of about 20 or so are constantly moving and handling cattle coming in, as well as getting ready for the day’s sale.

Early in the day is when Ezzard assists many of the sellers moving the cattle into the market. The cattle are unloaded from trailers and moved into a series of pens inside the barns.

Ezzard uses a variety of tools and techniques to help move the cattle in his intended direction. The most basic way to control the flow of cattle is opening and closing certain doors in the barn so that the cattle have one, direct path to their destination.

Secondly, Ezzard uses light bulbs to light the path. Inside the barn is very dark, which is intended to help keep the cattle calm. He said the cattle will follow light, so bulbs hang strategically from the ceilings to certain pens in the barn.

Finally, sometimes the cattle need a little push to get them moving. To get the attention of the cattle, Ezzard employs four different kinds of prods or herding tools. One he calls the “rattle paddle,” which has a bead-filled head that creates a noise to provoke the cattle. He also has a standard fiberglass prod with rubber tips to gently poke them in the right direction. Ezzard said his favorite tool is a three-foot-long flexible plastic rod with a small flag on the end. He said many cattle react better to the sound of the flag than the rattle paddle, and it is very lightweight and versatile.

Ezzard also said he will sparingly use an electric cattle prod, and only does so when he is in a situation where one of the cows poses a serious threat to the health of other cattle. He said when he is dealing with so many cattle -- Ezzard sold almost 600 last Wednesday -- it is important to make sure the cattle, especially since they are not his property, are treated with respect and care to keep a positive environment in the barn.

The market is vital for both the buyers and the sellers, according to the Georgia Beef Board’s Executive Vice President Josh White. It provides an efficient method for sellers to have others bid on their cattle and gives buyers a wide selection of cattle to choose from.

“Markets like the Mid-Georgia Livestock Market are pretty essential, especially in Georgia, where the average farmer that raises cattle only has an average herd size of somewhere between 20 and 30 cattle,” said White. “It's vital to the average cattle producer because they cannot fill up a tractor trailer load of cattle with their production from their farm each year, which is what most feed yards or stocker operators want. They want to operate in the most efficient way possible, and these markets allow them to do that.”

White said that the Mid-Georgia Livestock Market is a very well-ordered and well-run operation.

“Compared to the other markets in the state of Georgia, it’s pretty typical, although they do a very excellent job taking care of their animals and taking care of their buyers and sellers. They're a top-notch outfit,” White said.

Ezzard said that on a normal Wednesday, he will have between 20 and 30 buyers. However, he said he has between four and six regular buyers that are “order buyers.” Order buyers are contracted purchasers of cattle who buy for one or more companies. The companies give the order buyers a list of criteria that they want in cattle purchases, so the buyers know what to look for and which cattle to buy. Ezzard said the majority of his business comes from order buyers.

The cattle that are bought are usually not purchased for the purpose of immediate slaughter, though. According to White, 90 percent of the beef industry in Georgia is “cow-calf.” Cow-calf operations are carried out by a rancher who keeps a permanent herd of cows to give birth to calves for later sale. White said Georgia’s weather is not as conducive to cattle growth, as they are safer and benefit more from a drier environment.

The market in Jackson is just one piece of the Georgia beef industry, which has a $3 billion economic impact, according to a handout provided by the Georgia Beef Board. The state is home to more than 20,000 beef cattle operations and, as of Jan. 1, 2011, about 1.02 million head, according to the Beef Board. That head count, however, is down from 1.11 million in 2007.

The cattle industry in the United States, overall, has also shown some signs of decline in head counts in recent years.

The Georgia Beef Board handout shows there were 92.6 million head of cattle in the U.S., as of Jan. 1, 2011, down from 93.9 million on Jan. 1, 2010, and the lowest head count since 91.2 million in 1958.

Also, according to the USDA, beef consumption in the United States fell from 27.9 billion pounds in 2002 to 26.4 billion pounds in 2010.

“Consumption is down because cattle numbers are down. There’s just not enough beef out there to be consumed compared to the past,” said White.

U.S. cattlemen have also learned to be more efficient in recent years. Since 1977, United States cattlemen have been able to produce 13 percent more total beef from 30 percent fewer animals, according to statistics cited by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, from the Journal of Animal Science.

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By the numbers

9.26

Million cattle and calves in the United States.

1.02

Million cattle and calves on Georgia farms.

3

Billion dollars in economic impact from Georgia cattle.

16

Percent reduction of the beef industry carbon footprint from 1977 to 2007.

20

Percent of world’s beef raised by U.S. cattlemen.

7

Percent of world’s cattle in the United States.

97

Percent of U.S. beef cattle farms classified as family farms.

2.9

Percent of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions from livestock production.

Sources: Georgia Beef Board, Cattlemen’s Beef Board and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.