Shasta Livestock Auction’s 50th anniversary sale in 2016. The weekly in-person auction is permanently closing its doors this month.

Woodburn Livestock Auction in Woodburn, Ore., and Shasta Livestock Auction Yard in Cottonwood, Calif., have both announced they will permanently close their livestock auction yards.

The Shasta Livestock Auction Yard, which held about 70,000 livestock last year at in-person sales, announced Tuesday it will shut down its weekly Friday sale for good after a final sale Feb. 12. It will be the end of an era for a business that started in the 1960s.

The auction’s founder, Ellington Peek, 92, is still actively involved in the business, but family members say it’s time to change gears.

“It’s really sad. There’s no doubt about it. The saddest part is that we were really important to the small and local ranchers who don’t have anywhere else to go,” the auction’s general manager and Ellington’s son, Brad Peek, 57, told the Capital Press.

Although Feb. 12 will mark the end of the company’s in-person sales, Peek said the Shasta Livestock business plans to continue and even expand its video sales and direct farm-to-farm country cattle trade. Last year, Peek said, the company had 350,000 head in its video and country trade sales.

“The main reason we’re closing the in-person sales is because we’re overstretched and need to focus on the video and country sales,” Peek said.

He cited other reasons, too, for the decision to shut down: being “strapped for time,” having no generation after his own interested in continuing the work, logistical challenges of running live auctions, government regulations and more.

Peek plans to sell the auction yard and adjoining property and said it would be “the greatest thing” if someone bought it to keep livestock auctions going.

But that may not be happen; across the West, more livestock auctions are closing than opening.

Woodburn Livestock Exchange in Oregon is also planning to close its animal auctions this month.

“This has been an agonizing decision for us to make, as we have enjoyed your patronage and friendship over the past many years,” the auction’s managers, Tom and Mary Elder, wrote in a statement to patrons.

Like Shasta Livestock, the Woodburn Livestock Exchange has a long history in its community — 80 years — but the business managers have decided to shut down the livestock portion of their business “due to the continual declining head counts and rising costs of doing business.”

The Woodburn Livestock Auction will hold its last sheep, goat and hog auction Feb. 15 and its final cattle and poultry auction Feb. 23.

In a statement, the Elders said their property is for sale but is not yet sold.

The Woodburn business will continue holding online-only machinery sales.

The Elders did not immediately respond to request for comment.