Stockyard rises near I-44 |amp| MM turnoff

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Jack Frost delights in showing off his new baby the $3 million, 4-acre, covered stockyards he and his partners are building on a 10-acre site just west of the I-44 and MM High-way turnoff. |ret||ret||tab|

They purchased the site from the Spicer Group of Joplin through Realtor Tom Rankin.|ret||ret||tab|

Frost and his partners had been looking for a new permanent home after being ousted in January from the Southwest Regional Stockyards at 1323 W. Locust. |ret||ret||tab|

The ouster caused Frost and other cattleman to develop a second regional stockyard on the I-44 corridor from here to Joplin.|ret||ret||tab|

Jackie Moore bought the local stockyards in December 2000 and didn't renew the contract with Frost, co-owner of National Commission Company, which was a fixture of the Springfield stockyards since 1929. |ret||ret||tab|

Moore, who learned the cattle business from Frost, said at that time that the ouster wasn't personal he didn't renew anyone else's contracts, either, in order to save money. |ret||ret||tab|

Frost and his partners then bought the Lebanon Stockyards to have a place to sell cattle while they decided what to do. They sell between 1,500 and 2,000 cattle there, a far cry from the 7,000 head of cattle the new stockyards can hold at one time, Frost said.|ret||ret||tab|

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Biggest of all|ret||ret||tab|

Howard Bailey, whose company is general contractor on the new stockyards, said, "There's nothing to the magnitude, of this size," in the area, including Moore's stockyards here and between Joplin and Mount Vernon. |ret||ret||tab|

The new facility will comprise 180,000 square feet and include exposed wood timbers, vertical cedar on the sides and a Galvalume white metal roof.|ret||ret||tab|

Built with all-steel framing and ma-sonry, the structure will be completed by February or March 2002, depending on the weather. It was designed by the architectural firm of H Design Group LLC of Springfield.|ret||ret||tab|

A 16,000-square-foot office complex is rising at the front of the development, attached to the covered sales arena, and it will sport a Western-style wrap-around front porch. The roof will be supported by wooden beams, Bailey said, to look like an old cracker-barrel store. |ret||ret||tab|

Half of the office space will be finished out for the new company Spring-field Livestock Marketing Center, which will run the stockyards from the second floor. Frost owns the company with Tom and Tonto Kissee, Jack Creed, Ed Ford, Pete Sumners, Kelly Crain and Joe Gammon. |ret||ret||tab|

The two-story building also will offer a restaurant-grill for hot sandwiches, Bailey said. |ret||ret||tab|

Frost said the company plans to lease the remaining 8,000 square feet for offices and retail space. The sales arena where the cattle will be auctioned will seat 350. The cattle pens will occupy 156,000 square feet.|ret||ret||tab|

Bailey said the new center will be quite modern, with a dust-free, impervious parking lot and a circle drive around the structure where cattle can be un-loaded. A retention basin has been dug to catch stormwater runoff, Frost said. |ret||ret||tab|

The covered yard will have a base rock surface for easy cleaning, an automatic watering system so the cattle can be properly hydrated, and plenty of lighting, Bailey said. "It will be much cleaner" than other lots, he added. |ret||ret||tab|

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All in the game|ret||ret||tab|

The new stockyards will compete with the Moore's Joplin stockyards on I-44 between Mount Vernon and Joplin and Moore's lot here. |ret||ret||tab|

"It's a number's game ... just a business decision" Moore said earlier this year when asked why he booted out the cattle companies from his stockyards. |ret||ret||tab|

His Joplin operation, the second lar-gest stockyards in the world in numbers, last year moved 300,000 head, he said. |ret||ret||tab|

Frost and his partners intend to get in on the game. And as the steel girders rise and limestone deposits are cracked and crumbled by heavy machinery, Frost drives around the site making sure his new baby grows straight and strong ... and big.[[In-content Ad]]