2008 Woodie Awards
Local Livestock Fun
Ethan Moore
Issue date: 4/28/06 Section: News
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Some come for the sale. Some come for the food. Others come just for the spectacle. Although you may not have realized it, Tuesday evenings at the Lewis Livestock Auction are the hottest nights for bovine entertainment in Faulkner County.
Situated along Amity Road off Highway 286, just by the interstate, the Lewis Sale Barn has been a staple along the Conway skyline since 1946. Approaching the barn on a sale night, one encounters trucks and trailers of all shapes and sizes, transportation for people who have traveled from as far away as Iowa and Kansas to buy cattle for meat or for breeding.
Once inside, one walks up a flight of stairs which open into an amphitheater with stadium seating. Think the Hollywood Bowl, but with cows instead of a stage. The atmosphere is that of a raucous middle school basketball game. Everyone inside has on either a cap or a cowboy hat, and signs reading "Don't Spit On Floor" adorn the walls by each entrance. Most people who attend the auction are either buyers for big meatpacking companies or cattle farmers, but it is free to go to.
"Some people just come to watch, it's fun. During summer and spring break there are always kids who come to see the sale," said Loretta Hall, who operates a cozy restaurant on the premises called Loretta's Sale Barn Café.
A typical Tuesday at the barn usually starts at 11:00, with different animals such as goats, hogs, horses, and even buffalo and llamas being auctioned off. At 1:30 the calf sale begins, and at 6:00 the cattle sale starts. The cattle are herded through a series of corrals in the open-air portion of the barn outside the auction arena. When a cow gets to the front of the line, a gate opens in front of it, and a man gives it a shock from an electric prod to move it into the arena.
Once in the auction arena, the cow moves through a semicircle corral while the auctioneer rapidly patters prices by either the pound or the head over the microphone. Interested buyers raise their hands if they like what they see. After the bidding on the cow has finished, a man pulls a lever and a metal gate opens to let it out of the arena and into another corral.
Situated along Amity Road off Highway 286, just by the interstate, the Lewis Sale Barn has been a staple along the Conway skyline since 1946. Approaching the barn on a sale night, one encounters trucks and trailers of all shapes and sizes, transportation for people who have traveled from as far away as Iowa and Kansas to buy cattle for meat or for breeding.
Once inside, one walks up a flight of stairs which open into an amphitheater with stadium seating. Think the Hollywood Bowl, but with cows instead of a stage. The atmosphere is that of a raucous middle school basketball game. Everyone inside has on either a cap or a cowboy hat, and signs reading "Don't Spit On Floor" adorn the walls by each entrance. Most people who attend the auction are either buyers for big meatpacking companies or cattle farmers, but it is free to go to.
"Some people just come to watch, it's fun. During summer and spring break there are always kids who come to see the sale," said Loretta Hall, who operates a cozy restaurant on the premises called Loretta's Sale Barn Café.
A typical Tuesday at the barn usually starts at 11:00, with different animals such as goats, hogs, horses, and even buffalo and llamas being auctioned off. At 1:30 the calf sale begins, and at 6:00 the cattle sale starts. The cattle are herded through a series of corrals in the open-air portion of the barn outside the auction arena. When a cow gets to the front of the line, a gate opens in front of it, and a man gives it a shock from an electric prod to move it into the arena.
Once in the auction arena, the cow moves through a semicircle corral while the auctioneer rapidly patters prices by either the pound or the head over the microphone. Interested buyers raise their hands if they like what they see. After the bidding on the cow has finished, a man pulls a lever and a metal gate opens to let it out of the arena and into another corral.
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