MARQUETTE — After the success of last year’s event, downtown Marquette will have livestock take over its streets for another cattle auction this week.
Barta Farms, based out of Little River, will bring angus bulls and females to the city center Friday for its fourth Annual Bull Sale.
Ryan Barta, the owner of the farm, said this is the second year that Marquette is hosting the event.
“Last year, we were kind of out of a spot to have it due to COVID,” Barta said.
He said after talking with Stan Von Strohe at the Smoky Valley Distillery in Marquette, they thought it could be a good experience for the people and businesses in downtown Marquette as many events were not happening during the pandemic.
“We put our heads together and thought if we could get a community event…it could be a pretty good opportunity for businesses to get traffic through,” Barta said.
Barta is a fan and big customer of the distillery, and likes the idea of supporting businesses in Kansas. He even goes as far as taking gallons of its vodka to a Bloody Mary bar he hosts at a cattlemen’s conference in Oklahoma.
“It’s good, everybody likes the difference, likes that it came…from a small distillery in Kansas,” Barta said.
The auction will take place in the distillery’s tasting room, and Barta is expecting it to be full of people from across the state and beyond, especially since they’ve moved up the event to a Friday.
Adding more to the event this year. Other than the cattle auction, this year’s event will also have opportunities for farmers and ranchers to learn and connect with each other and vendors.
“We teamed up with the…National Farmers Organization,” Von Strohe said. “From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. we have five different speakers coming in on a variety of topics.”
The trade show begins at 2:30 p.m., something Barta said is useful for the farmers and ranchers in the region, as shows like this aren’t happening as often as they used to.
“We’re just trying to do something like that, to bring guys to one location on a day and a time that is still kind of open for (people) in this community,” Barta said. “Nobody is really in the field yet. It’s a good time for them to get together and a good time for businesses to bring their stuff there.”
Barta said the trade show will also be an opportunity for people coming to support the local community. “We ask for an entry fee to the trade show to benefit the Marquette Learning Center,” Barta said.
In addition to benefiting the learning center, Von Strohe said bringing a lot of people to Marquette will also help the businesses there.
“We’re always trying to do something to get people (here), and keep it on the map more than anything,” Von Strohe said.
This is a unique sight to see, which is an immediate draw for many people.
“My grandkids live in Dallas and Rogers, Arkansas, and it’s one of their favorite events,” Von Strohe said. “They’re city kids, they don’t get to see a bunch of bulls.”
Barta said this draw of “city people” is purposeful. “We want to bring them in too,” he said. “We want to show them this is what we do; this is our operation.”
By showing people what the agricultural industry really is like, Barta said, it might help outsiders understand it better.
“(We want to) show them…what it can do for all of us,” he said. “The education side of the (agriculture) sector of Kansas is a pretty neat thing we have here.”
A schedule of events on the day of the auction.The seminars begin at 10 a.m. March 18, following the 9:30 a.m. check-in for the educational seminars, which run through 2:30 p.m.
The trade show begins at 2:30 p.m. At 6 p.m. the bull sale begins in the tasting room at Smoky Valley Distillery, 105 N. Washington St. Following the sale there will be a dinner and live band performing.
As reported in the Salina Journal
