Springfield Livestock Marketing Center

My rating would have been "0" star if I could have done that!!! This is the worst sales barn you could possibly go. They have zero respect for their customers, no courtesy, they are dishonest and do not hold to their word, they have no business ethics whatsoever. In my book, with that kind of records, they should never be in business at all! We brought 5 cows at their "special sale" on February 17th 2018. We brought them on that particular Saturday just because it was a "special sale". On their own, they decided to only sell 3 of them during the special sale, planning to sell the 2 others on the following Monday, 19th of Feb. at the regular "Cow & Bull" sale. Totally disregarding our rights as “owners”, they didn’t even bother letting us know, not even given us a chance to decide if we wanted to sell them at the next regular sale, or if we wanted to postpone the sale for another time. We only found out about their endeavor because we decided to pick up our check on Saturday evening instead of having it in the mail. At that point, it was by looking at our receipt that we found out. When we inquired about it, we were told that they thought the 2 cows that they had withheld from the special sale would be sold at a better price on Monday. As we didn’t have our trailer with us and knowing that they would still be sold at a cow sale, we agreed to leave them. When we saw the weather alert, on Monday 19th early morning; we decided to retrieve our cows especially seeing how badly cows had sold earlier in the month with similar weather conditions. I called way before the sale and informed one of the managers. Late afternoon, when we arrived at the barn, we were surprised to see one of our BWF. Their receipt from the Saturday’s sale was erroneously showing that our 2 BWF had been sold on that day. That was our understanding and their employee understood the receipt just like we did, but when I called today, Mr. Ed Ford told me that B-WF was not a typo for BWF but meant a “BA” & a “BWF”. Regardless that miss-understanding with their dubious way of writing out their receipts; when we were at the sales barn on Monday 19th, and saw our BWF (which we really wanted to sell as we were removing the BWF from our herd), my husband spoke with Mr. Ed Ford on the phone and agreed to leave her till the next Cow & Bull sale thus, Monday 26th. Mr. Ed Ford gave us “his word” that they would take care of her till the next Monday, “D” day of sale. As we thought he would be a “man of his word”, we left the barn trusting him, and persuaded that our cow would be sold on the 26th. But, that was our mistake as this man cannot be trusted! Today, we were surprised to find a check from the sales barn in our mail??? We were shocked to see that our cow, who was supposed to be sold on the 26th as per our agreement with Mr. Ed Ford, had been sold on the 20th! Not only, Mr. Ed Ford sold our cow behind our back, but he dared sell her on Tuesday 20th to the SLAUGHTER HOUSE!!!!! A perfectly sound cow that was only going to turn 6 years old this coming Spring!!! Her fate was to become another’s farmer cow and to continue to breed, not to be disposed at the slaughter house!!!! This is so UNETHICAL!!!!!! We cannot stand to have been deceived in such a manner and at the expense of a sound animal! Do they know anything about “respect & courtesy toward customers”??? And about the “respect” that one has to show for life, even the one of an animal??? This sales barn is a disgrace! And though Mr. Ed Ford bragged of being in business for years, like I told him on the phone, he doesn’t deserve to remain in business when he treats his customers and their livestock with no consideration at all. This is appalling! What he deserves is to be sued! I will never set one foot in the “Springfield Livestock Marketing Center” ever again and I will warn all the farmers I know and come across!