Keosauqua Sale Co. offers a true community sale

KEOSAUQUA – Keosauqua Sale Co. is a bustling livestock and agriculture market that has grown over time.

Bill and Becky Goehring of Libertyville own the sale barn, which was established in 1942. Bill’s folks acquired it in 1986 while he was in college, and he went to work for them. Before then, the family had run an auction that sold some cattle but mostly machinery.

“When we started here, we sold a lot of boars and sows, and built up a pretty reputable pig sale over time,” Bill said. “In the late 1980s and 90s, we were selling 1,500 to 2,500 feeder pigs per week.”

As the hog business became more vertically integrated, the sale barn’s hog numbers declined a bit, and it went to marketing feeder pigs and hogs on Saturday, whereas previously it had given feeder pig sales its own day, Tuesday. The state’s rabies’ law also changed, and pigs had to be separated from sows and hogs.

Bill said that Keosauqua has always had one of the best sheep and goat markets in the region, and he and his family sought to continue that tradition. In the beginning, the family might sell 40-50 goats and 600-700 sheep and lambs, but now those two numbers are about equal. Plus, Bill added that hair sheep are more in demand and that he doesn’t sell as many wool sheep.

Over time, Bill began to sell more and more cattle. When the pig business began to shrink, some of his best feeder pig buyers and sellers got into feeding cattle.

“The relationships I’d built during the hog sales allowed me to open doors in cattle sales,” Bill said.

And cattle sales have more than doubled under Bill’s tenure, from 300-400 head per week to 700 to 1,500 per week today.

Apart from livestock, the business also sells square bales of hay, which are especially in demand during droughts.

“In the drought years of 2012-14, we started the hay sale,” Bill said. “Now we sell 800 to 1,000 big bales per week through the winter.”

The sale barn’s busiest time of the year is September through May, and that applies to both hay and livestock. Bill said it has to do with when calves are born and marketed.

“In the summer months when it’s hot, the cattle are out grazing, and not as many cattle move from June to August,” he said.

Meanwhile, there is less seasonality to hog and sheep sales.

Bill said Keosauqua Sale Co. has a very large outdoor market that he calls a “true community sale.” It encompasses all species and outside merchandise on Saturday.

“We have an auctioneer inside selling sheep and goats, one auctioneer selling big bales, and one selling small squares, so we have three places where we’re running an auction,” he said.

The business has four employees who work every day, but on sale days, the number of workers balloons to 24.

The sale barn isn’t just the place where Bill goes to work. It’s played a huge role in his personal life, too, and was where he met his wife Becky, who was working in the kitchen. The couple have four sons: Curtis, Lucas, Ted and Colby, who are all involved in the sale barn, and the five men have gone into business together to form the 5G Cattle Company.

The Goehrings have run 5G Cattle Company for about 13 years, and it’s a heifer replacement program where they purchase commercial angus heifers, which are then sold as bred heifers at their annual production sale. Bill said that on the first Wednesday in December of every year, they hold a sale that features about 150 angus cows and 400 first-calf heifers, as well as a registered Hereford sale. In 2024, Bill was inducted into the Iowa Hereford Hall of Fame.

Bill said he and his family are fortunate to live in Southeast Iowa where there are such “great livestock people to work for.”

“What it takes to keep the market open is a great supply of quality livestock, and producers who are as good as any in the country,” Bill said.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

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