The Ballad of Diamond Jim

THE BALLAD OF DIAMOND JIM

ARTICLE BY CORBITT WALL

Gene Peacock and Jimmy Craig shipping cattle from The Pump Stallion Pens, Elmdale, KS

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 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 could not return to Kansas City without the love of his life who would eventually bless him with a daughter (Jenny) and a son (Joe).

By the early 70’s, the Kansas City Stockyards had started to dwindle but it would last for another twenty years. In 1972, Jimmy went to work with a large order buying firm and began traveling country salebarns from central Iowa down to the Southwest Regional Stockyards in Springfield, MO. He more than tripled his $500 per month salary, but soon got an opportunity to become a partner in another order buying firm. He moved his family to Salina, KS, and began working auctions and direct trade areas through central Kansas and down into north Texas. His earlier training at the Golden Ox helped him down in Texas, but the Texas boys made an impression on Jimmy too. From that point on, he has rarely been seen without his trademark pristine cowboy hat, starched monogrammed shirts, dress boots, maybe a little bling on his fingers, and a stylish wild rag if there’s a chill in the air. He also never passes on a shapely blue roan steer when one is available.

Little else has changed in Jimmy Craig’s story over the last forty years. Of course, there’s been ups and downs and market fluctuations. Jimmy has made and lost several fortunes, the losses mostly from a result of him investing in the wheel of which his expertise is just a cog. He once farmed on hillsides in Stanley, KS, that is now bustling Overland Park and once produced the World-Famous Jimmy Craig’s Bull Ropin’, a popular range cattle roping event in Salina, KS. He will tell you, “Life isn’t so much as where you’ve been as who you’ve been there with”. Jimmy still enjoys his work and has been known to bark out his assessment of a challenger’s mental capacity following the bidding competition on a set of cattle, only to offer him a handshake and a steak dinner after the sale. He’s known for his generosity and most of his friends have received gifts from Jimmy that reflect his personality as a western preservationist. And his summarization?...”Good Judgement comes from Experience, a lotta that comes from Bad Judgement”