Overbrook ? As owners of the Overbrook Livestock Commission for the past 19 years, John and Joyce Dillon know the concept of “buy low, sell high.”

Now, they are following the advice they have given thousands of area cattle producers.

The couple said Monday they had reached a deal to sell the livestock auction barn to longtime employee Rob Gloss and his wife, Debbie.

John Dillon said the sale primarily was motivated by their desire to retire, but that it also was an excellent time to sell a livestock company. That’s because the cattle market is as hot as a sirloin on a charcoal grill.

Prices paid for live cattle have nearly doubled during the past two years, and because livestock barns make their money by charging a commission on each sale, the business has once again become lucrative.

“It has been good lately — real good,” John Dillon said. “And the best part is I think the high prices are here to stay for a while.”

Joyce Dillon said the company had drawn interest from three other area couples and a large Florida corporation.

“We really wanted to keep it local so it would still be a nice small-town sale barn,” she said. “We wanted it to remain a place where people are known by a name instead of a number.”

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Rob and Debbie Gloss said they didn’t plan to make any changes when they take over Sept. 1. The weekly sale will continue to be on Mondays, and the business will retain the same 30 part-time employees.

Rob Gloss works during a sale at the Overbrook Livestock Commission. Gloss, who was working on Monday, is purchasing the business from John and Joyce Dillon, who have owned it for the past 19 years. Rob Gloss and his wife, Debbie, will become owners on Sept. 1.

Rob Gloss has worked at the sale barn since the Dillons became owners 19 years ago. Before that he worked at the now-defunct Lawrence Livestock Commission.

Gloss said he thought the timing was right to own a sale barn, especially given the prices that cattle were commanding. He said he was betting cattle prices would remain high for the foreseeable future because drought had diminished the nation’s cattle herd.

“I’m no prophet, but I think prices are here to stay for a while,” Gloss said. “I would say times have changed.”

Joyce Dillon also predicted higher prices would stick around. She said the price of land to raise cattle had increased and the number of people who want to do the hard work associated with ranching had decreased. That adds up to lower supplies and higher prices.

“There aren’t as many country boys as there used to be,” Joyce Dillon said.

But she said she was confident that the Overbrook livestock barn wouldn’t fall by the wayside. The barn sells about 1,100 head of cattle per week between September and May, typically its busiest time of year. The barn attracts sellers from a 150-mile area and buyers from Kansas and parts of Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.

Area ranchers said they were pleased the Dillons were able to find a local buyer for the business.

Bill Rice has been taking cattle to the Overbrook auction from his rural Baldwin farm for about 40 years.

“I’m sure glad it is staying open,” Rice said. “It makes life easier to be able to bring them here. And really, it is the better sale in the area.”