{"id":31011,"date":"2023-10-16T15:48:53","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T21:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/yellow-jacket-livestock-auction-just-became-colorados-newest-sale-barn\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:32:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:32:37","slug":"yellow-jacket-livestock-auction-just-became-colorados-newest-sale-barn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/yellow-jacket-livestock-auction-just-became-colorados-newest-sale-barn\/","title":{"rendered":"Yellow Jacket Livestock Auction just became Colorado\u2019s newest sale barn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Zane
Zane Odell explains the design of Yellow Jacket Livestock Auction on Oct. 7. He intentionally has thought of the whole production, from the pen layout to the modernized equipment in the sale barn itself. Colette Czarnecki\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Just off U.S. Highway 491 in Lewis, cattle and horses can be seen in pens waiting to be sold at Montezuma County\u2019s new sale barn.<\/p>\n

Friday, Oct. 13, marks Yellow Jacket Livestock Auction\u2019s grand opening, the new sale barn in Southwest Colorado that will, for now, host cattle and equine auctions.<\/p>\n

Last week, walking through the concrete and yet pleasantly decorated sale barn, Zane Odell\u2019s son, Bronco O\u2019Dell, and his friend worked on the bidding area where seven rows of yellow stadium seats exist. The large room smelled of fresh paint. Electronics were put in place, and country-western d\u00e9cor, designed by Zane ODell\u2019s wife, Bjarne Odell, donned the interior building that included cowboy products she made for her store, Sorrel Top Cowboy Supply.<\/p>\n

\n

Yellow Jacket Livestock Auction <\/h4>\n

Location:<\/strong> 19245 County Road X in Lewis, Colorado.<\/p>\n

Grand opening:<\/strong> Friday, Oct. 13<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As the others scrambled to complete the two-year project from the ground up, Zane Odell, 61, spoke in detail about his visions for it while walking through the property.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people retire at this age, and I\u2019m starting a brand-new chapter,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good reason to get out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The auction ring has an indoor scale to weigh livestock in front of the buyers, and tech-savvy electronic machines that bring together in-person and online participants at cattleusa.com<\/a>. Odell believes that the modern sale barn, with its concrete floors, will benefit the cattle while they\u2019re in the hands of the sale barn\u2019s employees and ranchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we built the sale barn, we took in consideration the comfort and care of cattle,\u201d he said. \u201cMy background on the ground floor has prepared me for the care of cattle and the safety of employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

One example of how he strives to look after the cattle is the elaborate water system he designed. With the numerous pipes, he feels confident that if something went wrong with one pipe, water to the cattle would not be stalled.<\/p>\n

To ensure employees\u2019 safety, Zane installed catwalks for the outdoor pens so they\u2019re not in contact with the animals and there\u2019s minimal risk of injury.<\/p>\n

With intention and care, he also designed the cow alley \u2013 a complex alleyway of metal gates that help guide the flow of the livestock from the pens and crowding area to the sale barn.<\/p>\n

\"Interior
Interior d\u00e9cor designed by Bjarne Odell for the Yellow Jacket Sale Auction. Colette Czarnecki\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe could open these gates and push snow out of these alleys if we need to,\u201d he said, referring to the multiple options to clear the paths for everyone involved in the business. \u201cThe whole thing has been planned out with care of the Earth and the least amount of stress on the animal as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with the pen\u2019s \u201cmetal maze,\u201d the complex is up to code for inspections. Mailboxes and metal tubes were placed at the holding spaces for brand inspection, leaving a paper trail to inform whose cattle is whose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of the mailbox is for the brand inspections,\u201d Odell said. \u201cLet\u2019s say the brand inspector hasn\u2019t seen them (the cattle). We put them in that alley to make it easy on (the inspector). I put the mail in that mailbox with the pin number written on it. I put the flag up so if he comes out here he sees a flag up. He could walk straight to them, brand-inspect them, leave the paperwork with the cattle, and the flag is back down.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other side of the cow alley, a hydraulic chute stands for vaccinating and pregnancy-testing the cattle. He said that the hydraulic chute is safe for the employees because of the catwalk and for the cattle because they can\u2019t thrash around and hurt themselves.<\/p>\n

\"One
One of the inspection mailboxes in the cow alley at the Yellow Jacket Livestock Auction. Colette Czarnecki\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As someone who\u2019s worked his whole life in agriculture \u2013 first running sheep and goats, then cattle \u2013 and made a living visiting sale barns along the Western Slope, New Mexico and Arizona, Odell has had the idea to open up his own for five years. That idea evolved to become a modernized sale barn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s opportunity for a modern sale barn all over. I\u2019ve seen what does and doesn\u2019t work in other places and tried to incorporate all of the good into this one,\u201d he said. \u201cAg needs some new businesses. It\u2019s been a tough world for the past 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s received many positive comments from the agricultural community to open up Yellow Jacket Livestock Auction.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow
Yellow JacketLivestock Auction\u2019s hydraulic chute that helps with vaccination, pregnancy testing and checking age on Oct. 7. Colette Czarnecki\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

His goal was to create a business built on trust for the livestock, consignors and buyers, and to serve ranchers in the Four Corners.<\/p>\n

Looking back<\/div>\n

An article in The Mountain Mail<\/a> dates local livestock sales to the late 1880s, when livestock was shipped by train to terminal markets in Denver, Omaha, Chicago and Kansas City.<\/p>\n

When the truck entered the automobile market in 1934, local livestock markets surfaced and producers transported the animals via roads rather than rails.<\/p>\n

Yellow Jacket Livestock Auctions is the 16th sale barn in Colorado and the fifth on the Western Slope \u2013 from Grand Junction to Cortez.<\/p>\n

As Odell is fourth generation in this area, and takes pride in it, he plans for his family-owned business to carry on with descendants. His website shows his grandson\u2019s footprints in the concrete with the sentence, \u201cThere may even be little Odells running about!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good business for the whole family to work at, make a living and raise kids with work ethics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow
Yellow Jacket Livestock Auction\u2019s interior d\u00e9cor, which Bjarne Odell designed. Colette Czarnecki\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Odell\u2019s ancestor, Trenzo Gai, immigrated from Italy in Yellow Jacket by 1913, as previously mentioned in The Journal<\/a>, farmed on the land and operated a warehouse and trucking business. His daughter married an Odell.<\/p>\n

His family acquired land from the Homestead Act in 1862. His father\u2019s maternal side of the family homesteaded on Ute Mountain before the U.S. government officially considered it tribal land and his mother\u2019s family homesteaded at Arriola and Cherry Creek near Mancos.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow
Yellow Jacket Livestock Auction\u2019s selling room, where the ring holds a scale for bidders to view on the screen. Colette Czarnecki\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

His great-grandfather owned the property that the sale barn stands on, but it was previously sold out of the family. Odell, however, bought it back two years ago to keep it in the family\u2019s name. He said there\u2019s only been two owners since he bought it, including his great-grandfather.<\/p>\n

Anticipation for the big day<\/div>\n

He expects that the opening day\u2019s buyers will come from 5,000 miles away collectively.<\/p>\n

A couple hundred cattle were consigned for opening day, which isn\u2019t a huge number, as opposed to 1,000 at other sale barns. With all the new computer equipment and a few experts scattered in the work crew, he believes the first sale\u2019s lower number will help everyone become comfortable with the learning process.<\/p>\n

He also expects a couple hundred \u201clooky-loos\u201d will be in the stands \u2013 that is, those who want to see how the sale barn will perform before they bet their whole year\u2019s work on showing up.<\/p>\n

For now, the sale barn will auction horses and cattle on Fridays, except for holidays. Once a month, it will auction horses only.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow
Yellow Jacket Livestock Auction on Oct. 7, 2023. Colette Czarnecki\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Plans to open a cafe are in the works. The kitchen is all set up with water and gas, and an engraved, wooden antique counter stands alone with two bar chairs in the dining room. The only thing is that Odell doesn\u2019t want just any chef to run the kitchen. He wants to know that the chef will satisfy his and everyone\u2019s appetites with \u201cgood home-cooked food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the food he\u2019s thinking of being served are biscuits and gravy, hamburgers and ice cream.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want an ice cream machine, soft-serve,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d be their biggest customer.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s worked around the clock as a rancher, and with more than 200 semitrailer loads to construct the sale barn, Zane hasn\u2019t had much free time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe building came on two trucks, and there\u2019s over 150 loads of gravel here. I\u2019ve hauled all this pipe in from Farmington to Wyoming,\u201d he said when explaining how much work and effort it\u2019s taken him and his family to make the sale barn a reality. \u201cRight now, there\u2019s 15 miles of pipe and 15 boxes of welding rod. All day every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Yellow
Yellow Jacket Livestock Auction\u2019s counter in the not-yet ready cafe on Oct. 7. Colette Czarnecki\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

modernized equipment and intentional design, Zane Odell has ranchers, cattle and employees in mind<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81285,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31011\/revisions\/81285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31011"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}