Dwayne Mays was born to Johnny and Sallie Mays on August 30th, 1954. He spent his younger years in Chivington, CO where his family ranched until 1963 when his parents bought a farm south of Benkelman, Nebraska. He attended a one room school house until it’s closure and from there attended school in Bird City, KS, graduating with the class of 1972. He furthered his education at a two year Ag school in Beloit, KS.
After finishing Ag school he was left with the decision to return home to the family ranch, pursue further education, or follow his boyhood dream of becoming an auctioneer and owning his own sale barn. He chose to go back to the ranch in Benkelman and began working for H.L. Andy Anderson at the livestock market in Benkelman.
Dwayne’s family had sold calves and yearlings at Ogallala Livestock for several years and he had always dreamed about working there. Despite a generous offer of employment from Les and Harry from Tri State Livestock in McCook, his passion was still to work at Ogallala Livestock. In early 1975, Dwayne nervously called Jerry Speck to see if he would have some part-time work. The answer was yes! He started soon after and was very excited to work along Jerry and his dad Clyde, who soon after offered Dwayne a full-time job. He went home to visit with his dad to get his opinion on the offer, which was $3.25 per hour.
“I still remember my Dad’s blessing. He said you can’t turn down an offer like that” said Dwayne. He packed up all of his belongings into the trunk of his car and started his career in October of 1975.
Dwayne Mays | 2026
Ogallala Livestock Auction
Jerry had Dwayne doing all facets of what was needed to learn to someday manage and own his own sale barn. Back then everything was done by hand, feeding small square bales, cleaning pens and alleys with a shovel, working 80 hour weeks. Soon Jerry figured out that Dwayne had an eye for sorting to his specifications as well as being able to build lasting relationships with customers. Next, he started sending him with Clyde to the country as his driver, looking at cattle. He only got to spend two years with him as Clyde passed away in the summer of 1977. Things changed for all of them at that time, and Jerry needed Dwayne to step up and take on more responsibility. In the past he had been working the ring on sale days but was then asked to start working in the sorting alley. “Back then and still today we took great pride in making the cattle look great by sorting and feeding them like our own” says Dwayne.
In the fall of 1978, Dwayne met the forever love of his life, Vanessa. Her brother Lyndon Hooper, who was a brand inspector at the time, introduced them. They were married April 28th, 1979. Vanessa worked outside the home until 1982 when she went to work at the sale barn, helping 3 days a week. Their first child Heather was born in 1984 and Whitney in 1987. They both grew up at the sale barn. Later God blessed them with another daughter, Izabel, who spent even more time at the barn.
In 1985 Ogallala Livestock purchased the market in Chappell, NE. Scott and Christine VanWinkle moved there to manage it and Jerry made Dwayne the assistant manager in Ogallala. Ogallala Livestock continued to grow in numbers selling approximately 150,000 to 180,000 cattle per year all through the 80’s and 90’s.
All through Dwayne’s employment, many barns and banks had approached him about buying their market, however his passion stayed at Ogallala Livestock. Dwayne’s customer base had grown so much! Jerry, Scott and Dwayne started planning for a sale to take place between them in the late 90’s, and in June of 2005, his dream came to fruition when Scott and Dwayne signed the papers to purchase Ogallala Livestock.
Scott and Dwayne continued to grow and expand the business. One of those avenues was expanding their relationship with Western Video Market, selling 30,000 to 40,000 cattle annually. In 2005 they rented the feed yard from Martin Flaming, which Dwayne really still loves to this day. “Like anyone in this business, I would be lying if I didn’t say there were small hills and big mountains to climb over. When you are dealing with millions of dollars every day its not going to always be easy but by the grace of God, family, and a great crew of employees they survived the hard times because they had saved for those rainy days”, said Dwayne. Dwayne’s office manager Carla DeKay, and his bankers Chad Adams, Todd Adams and Steve Krause, helped them immensely over all the years.
From 1982-2003, Dwayne used his gifting in auctioneering to sell at Ogallala Livestock and Chappell Livestock as well as guest auctioneer in Brush, Co for Bob Walker. Over his time, Dwayne served on many boards including the Keith County Fair Board from 1982-1996, his local church board for 6 years and served as Vice President of Membership Services for LMA. It was also a passion of Dwayne’s to give back to the local 4H and FFA divisions by selling at their sales and supporting them financially.
In 2018 Dwayne felt it was time to start preparing for the next ownership of Ogallala Livestock. Lance VanWinkle, Scott’s son was currently employed so that felt like a great option. Dwayne had no sons, but did have a young man in mind. Jay Nordhausen had come to him out of college and indicated he would be interested in working for him, however Jay first went to work for the Angus Association. “I knew things weren’t going as expected for him so I made that phone call. It was a blessing from God as Jay was waiting by the phone” said Dwayne. On June 9th, 2020 they sold the barn to Jay and Lance. Dwayne wasn’t quite ready to hang up his hat though, so he signed a contract to stay on until June 2023 to help the transition. “I am so happy for them as they have expanded even more with the purchase of North Platte Stockyard, selling 250,000 annually and are now stockholders in Western Video Market. God blessed me with these two Christian men who hold the same standards that Scott and I did” said Dwayne.
As for now, Vanessa and Dwayne live in Noblesville, IN, and still operate Shoestring Feeders and Slater Woods Livestock, both are ranching, backgrounding and finishing cattle operations. Their daughter Izabel and son-in-law Trent Malone are partners with them, along with Tucker and Amy Teague and Shelby Teague out of Hamlin, Texas.
“I believe my calling now is to mentor and help young men and women get a chance to fufill their dreams in operating their own ranches and feedlot operations” says Dwayne. When they moved east they knew only their children, but it wasn’t long before God put several young families in contact with Dwayne, and today he has 9 partners in Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Texas. “I am helping them fulfil their dreams, just as Jerry did for me” says Dwayne.
“It is such an honor to be recognized with so many men and women who I have looked up to all my life. I leave you with this which sums up so much of what I believe: Proverbs 22:1- ‘Choose a good reputation over great riches; being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold.’”