About Us
Who We Are
Mark Wedel was born in Northwest Oklahoma, just on the north side of the Cimarron River, in the small town of Ringwood. His passion for cattle was bred into by his father who owned/operated a successful dairy farm and stocker cattle business. From the time Mark could walk he was following in his father’s footsteps. Mark’s primary job was milking the dairy cows, weaning and feeding the baby calves, and looking after the health of the stocker cattle, which was on the upward side of 800 head a year.
Mark’s father took advantage of the government funded dairy herd buy out in the early 1980’s, so Mark left the family farm and went to work for Theilen Farms. Gary Theilen is a prominent stocker cattle operator and order buyer from Enid, OK. Mark oversaw Gary’s 3,500 head of stocker cattle grazed on wheat pastured for 3 years.
In that time, Gary recognized Mark’s knowledge of cattle and began sending him to sale barns from Woodward, Ok to Eastern Arkansas to purchase cattle for Theilen Farms, as well as Theilen Farm customers. Mark worked under Gary Theilen for several years before venturing out on his own. In 1991, Mark established Landmark Cattle Company, his own order buying operation, which is still a thriving business. Mark has purchased cattle in over 40 sale barns in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and Missouri. Mark is not just an entrepreneur, but a family man, who desired to own a family operated business.
So in 2007, Mark and Becky took a leap of faith and purchased the Ola sale barn. Although previously small in cattle sales, the facility provided the acres needed to precondition and ship personal and Landmark customer cattle. Mark knew with his established cattle buying business and his family behind him, he could transform the small Ola sale barn into the successful cattle auction that it is today, Ouachita Livestock Market. Mark’s experience and knowledge allow him to set all classes of cattle in himself during his sale and Landmark Cattle enables him to set the cattle in solid and not back up, which separates Ouachita Livestock Market from its competitors. Not only did Mark improve what happens in the ring, he made expansions to the facility.
He, along with his son, Perry Evans and son-in-law Duffey Rye built cover pens, doubling the number of cattle the sale barn can hold. These pens include feed bunks and water tanks to insure that the cattle received later in the week or over the weekend will be stress free and full for the sale on Tuesday afternoon.
He has changed the process in which the cattle are handled out back before they are brought through the ring, which puts less stress on the cattle and improves the speed and efficiency of the auction. Mark has other future projects in the works, such as cosmetic changes to the front of the building and covering more pens out back.
Ouachita Livestock Market employs tried and true cattlemen who not only have the skills to properly care for cattle, but have the knowledge to appraise cattle on the farm.
Mark can ensure his customers that he, as well as his staff of representatives stay abreast the ever changing cattle market so they can get top dollar for their cattle.
