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Richard Stober
Superior Livestock Auction
Richard Stober’s lifelong love and passion for the livestock industry led him to a fulfilling and prosperous career. Richard, a third-generation cattleman, knew at a young age that he would follow in the footsteps of his father, Ernest “Red” Stober, and Grandfather, Fred Stober.
Born in 1947, Richard began his career as a young man attending auctions on weekends and school holidays with his father in his home state of California. As soon as Richard was able to drive, he bought an old pickup with a set of racks and started going from sale-to-sale trading. Richard didn’t just limit himself to trading cattle. Lifelong friend, Dwayne Baxley, said, “If Richard thought it could make money he would buy it. Cattle, pigs, sheep, even goats!”
Late into his teens Richard began to buy and run stockers, which he did until being drafted into the army. While in the Army, Richard narrowly missed being deployed to Vietnam and was sent to Germany where he achieved, in less than a year, the rank of Sargent.
Upon returning from the Army, he resumed order buying and running stocker cattle. He soon had an opportunity to become a partner at the Templeton Livestock Market in Templeton, California at 24 years old, then went on to run the National Western Sale in Denver.
Richard returned to California and then later became the managing partner in the 101 Livestock Market in Buellton, CA. During this time, he continued to hone his auctioneering skills and went on to sell the sales at some of California and Neveda’s top markets, all the while, continuing to order buy and run stockers and feeder cattle. This resulted in Richard, by 2006, becoming one of highest volume buyers in the West, pasturing twelve to fifteen thousand head of cattle and trading approximately one hundred ten thousand head.
Richard’s lifelong philosophy has been “Love what you do, work hard and help others along the way. Most importantly, never stop being a student of your craft.” Richard has lived his life through this philosophy, always looking ahead, while learning from the past. Richard is a global thinker, studying how world events will affect the cattle industry, looking to the future for opportunities and being able to change direction with those coming opportunities.
An example of Richard’s ability to look towards the future was in 1980, Richard and several partners recognized the value of selling cattle by utilizing video footage and creating what would become Video West Cattle Auction. In April of that year, they held the first ever video cattle sale in San Luis Obispo, California at the world-famous Madonna Inn.
Richard was hired to be the general manager of Superior Livestock Auction and Superior Productions in 2007. Within days of taking the position he created the “Value Added” concept of marketing cattle. Bringing in the Pfizer Corporation, he created the “Enhanced Vaccination Program.” This program ensured the buyer a healthy animal which brought value to both the buyer and seller. He also saw the opportunity to gain revenue by redesigning the sale graphics and catalog layout to include icons to promote these programs. With these phenomenal enhancements, Richard took the program to the next level. From 2007 to 2009, under Richard’s direction, Superior offered 4.7 million cattle.
In 2010, Richard jumped at the chance when Chairman Dave Wood of Harris Ranch Feeding Company approached him to become the head of cattle procurement for their 120,00 head feedyard. During his time there, he purchased approximately 270,000 cattle per year for the company. In 2010, in addition to his responsibilities at Harris, Richard began cattle procurement for Wood Livestock supplying all the cattle for their ranches and associated feedlots. This resulted in another 75 to 100,000 cattle purchased each year. Richard always admired the business ethics of the company’s chairman Dave Wood and Harris Feeding Company, the position also allowed him to be home to oversee his 2,500 head grow yard in Madera, California with his wife of forty plus years, Nancy.
In 2022 Richard semi-retired, he and Nancy moved to their new home in Purcell, Oklahoma. He now feeds cattle in Texas and Nebraska, travels, and continues to educate himself daily with business news, world events and cattle industry news. He also gladly shares his knowledge with the many people that call him daily for advice.