Gene Peacock and Jimmy Craig Shipping cattle from The Pump Stallion Pens, Elmdale, KS, 2004
THE BALLAD OF DIAMOND JIM ARTICLE BY CORBITT WALL
It’s Tuesday at the Kingsville Livestock Auction in west-central Missouri, Jimmy Craig is sitting left-center three rows up in his regular seat (nobody but Jimmy sits in that seat during the feeder cattle auction). It’s early spring and this particular salebarn has a nice offering of locally raised short-yearling feedlot replacement steers and heifers along with many consignments of highly-soughtafter lightweight fall-born calves. Altogether, there are around 3000 head on hand to be sold to the highest bidder. Well over half of these feeder cattle will be black-hided which is commensurate with current demand, while the balance is mostly smoky Charolais crossbreds with black noses and/or solid reds. Jimmy Craig is in his “happy place” and many of the cattle for sale are right in his “wheelhouse” as he is a professional cattle order buyer and makes his living procuring groups of cattle as to kind, quality, quantity, and price specifications. His main customer PG. 10 :: SUMMER 2019
is a large commercial family feedlot operation based in Nebraska that has a reputation for buying the best performing feeder cattle available. Seasonally, Jimmy will also have orders to purchase lightweight calves and stocker cattle to graze the vast pastures of the Flint Hills region in east-central Kansas. Most of these cattle will again be purchased by Mr. Craig when they come off those pastures in the summer and early-fall. Jimmy admits that he loves the schedule he’s worked for the last 40 plus years, buying cattle in Missouri salebarns late fall through
early spring and then shipping country strings in his beloved Flint Hills in the summer and early fall. He’s always been a proud Kansan since he was a boy in the early 50’s growing up in what are now the Kansas City suburbs, going to horse and mule auctions with his grandfather. Soon after high school graduation, Jimmy took a job in the Kansas City Stockyards in 1965 with Wilson, Flynn, Laws Livestock Commission. Folks around the Stockyards immediately took a liking to Jimmy, quickly recognizing his eye for livestock and the fact that the afternoon at the Golden Ox Saloon was more fun when he was at their table. The Army draft came calling in 1968 and Jimmy Craig was more than happy to oblige. Had it not been for his stint in the Army, Jimmy would have never met Becky. They were arranged on a blind date when Jimmy was stationed at Fort Carson, CO. After his obligation to his country was fulfilled, Jimmy Color Photo: Jimmy Craig at the Potter Pens, Cassoday, KS, 1991
