Libertyville’s Bill Goehring inducted into Iowa Hereford Hall of Fame

Bill Goehring of Libertyville and owner of Keosauqua Sales Company was one of two new members inducted into the Iowa Hereford Hall of Fame.

Goehring and Jack Rife, of Wilton, were honored during the Iowa Hereford Breeders Association’s (IHBA) banquet during the Iowa Beef Expo. The Iowa Hereford Hall of Fame honors people who have had a significant impact on the breed in the state.

Bill Goehring’s original plan was to get his animal science degree from Iowa State University and become a field man – most likely, a dream job for a boy who had grown up with cattle since purchasing his first Hereford heifer at age 9. He did get the degree, in June of 1986, but two months later, his father bought the local livestock auction market in Keosauqua, about 20 miles from their home farm in Libertyville – and the rest, as they say, is history.

Between his sophomore and junior years at ISU, Bill went to the World Wide College of Auctioneering in Mason City, Iowa, developing the skill that serves him well in his current career. Before his dad bought the sale barn, he and Bill managed farm sales in the area. When they took over the sale barn, they first focused on developing the pig sale and Bill was the feeder pig auctioneer. As the barn’s cattle auctioneers retired, he took on that role and has been auctioneering the cattle every week for the last 25 years.

Bill and his wife Becky, whom he met when she was working in the sale barn café, bought out the rest of the market from his dad in 2008, and Bill set out to get more competition for packer cows and bulls. He was so successful in fostering competition that the market at Keosauqua Sales Company is the highest of any around, drawing sellers from as far as 100 miles away. It is one of the few markets in the country that sells all classes of livestock on the same day (every Saturday), along with hay and other outside items. Bill’s philosophy as a market owner is that it’s his job to make sure the cattle sold there bring full value.

Goehring Herefords began in 1973, and it didn’t take long for the entire family to immerse themselves in breed activities. Both Bill and his sister, Debbie, were active in the Iowa Junior Polled Hereford Association, with Bill serving as president. Their parents, Gary and Mary, served as junior advisors for most of Bill’s junior career, most notably in 1984, when Iowa first hosted the Junior National Polled Hereford Show in Des Moines. It was during this time that Bill filled his first national leadership role, as a member of the National Junior Polled Hereford Council, an experience he says introduced him to a lot of people he is still in contact with today.

Memorable experiences from his junior days include going to Knoxville, Tenn., to purchase a heifer from John Nicely that was later named champion at the Nebraska-Iowa junior show in Council Bluffs, that was judged by Glen Klippenstein. The heifer later got beat in a show judged by Joe Lewis, who said she was too dark red. Lewis became one of Bill’s mentors, as did Montie Soules, whom Bill says helped him as much as anybody, especially in establishing the market.

He fondly recalls going with Floyd McCaskill from Illinois to the Bar JZ sale in South Dakota and also attending dispersal sales of the Farris herd in Texas, Star Lake Ranch in Oklahoma and Rice Ranch in Wyoming. Nowadays, a local farmer and Angus breeder who is also a pilot flies him to many sales and cattle events, allowing him to participate and attend the activities and still not miss the commitments and demands of the sale barn.

Goehring Herefords’ registered cow herd consists of 150 spring-calving cows and 50 fall-calving cows and their commercial Angus herd includes 400 spring-calving cows and heifers. They breed 100 registered heifers very year as well as 450 black and black-whiteface heifers for their annual sale the first Wednesday in December. Additionally, they background 800 to 1,000 steers and finish 500 cattle at custom yards. They sell around 80 yearling and 2-year-old bulls each year and have also developed a strong private-treaty customer base for registered cows and heifers. Their consignments regularly top the female offering at the Iowa Select Hereford Sale at the Beef Expo.

Bill has been involved with the Iowa Beef Council and both the National and Iowa Livestock Marketing Associations, serving as the Iowa chairman for two years. He has been on the board of both the Iowa Polled Hereford Association and the Iowa Hereford Breeders Association and most recently served two years as IHBA president. He has organized several well-attended IHBA tours in the southeast Iowa area.

He judged the national Hereford show in the yards at the National Western Stock Show in Denver in 2013 and 2015. In recent years, one of Bill’s hidden talents has come to light as he writes a weekly blog (“Bill’s News”) on the sale barn website. Originally intended to communicate and inform people about the market, he found people engaged better with the “story” format and it just took off – it currently has a huge number of followers.

He was elected to the board of directors of the American Hereford Association in 2019 and finished his term as board president last October.

Bill acknowledges that serving on the national Hereford board and being its chairman has been his biggest professional accomplishment, but he derives the most satisfaction from having helped his boys engage in what the business is all about and getting them in a position to continue on with what they’ve been doing for the last 30 years. All four of his and Becky’s sons – Luke, Curtis, Ted and Colby – are involved in the sale barn and livestock operation, having literally grown up in and around it. Each has his own area of responsibility, from feeding the cattle each morning, overseeing herd health, hauling cattle, calving the Hereford and Angus cows to managing the commercial sale barn, and all are on hand on Saturdays to make sure things run smoothly.

Bill and Becky have been married since 1987 and she has moved from the café to the sale barn office, where she manages the clerical part of the operation and in Bill’s words, “is the glue that ties it all together.” One of their daughters-in-law now runs the kitchen. The Goehrings have five granddaughters and one grandson.

Bill’s career didn’t put him on the road as a fieldman, but it has introduced him to even more people, places and experiences than he ever expected.

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