Most people in Mt. Sterling are still asleep at 4 a.m., but Timmy Gayheart’s day at Bluegrass Stockyard East has already begun. Timmy’s job is to sort the cattle by size, weight and color to get ready for the 8:30 a.m. cattle auction.
Timmy, 29, works with his father, Tim Gayheart, 60, who manages the stockyard. Father and son have worked together at the stockyard for more than 10 years. For 15 years before that, Tim Sr. worked at Eugene Barber & Sons Cattle Co. in Lexington.
“I started to follow my dad around the stockyard by the time I was able to walk,” Timmy says. “It is more like a kind of passing on from generation to generation.”
By the time Timmy got his driver’s license, he was helping his father deal with the stockyard’s business.
“I really love this job,” he says. “My father is not a talkative person, but his actions and behaviors motivated me a lot.”
Timmy’s love for the natural environment where he grew up has also led him to cattle farming. Timmy and his wife, Lea, own a cattle farm in Montgomery County. They moved to a small house there just before their first daughter, Paisley, 3, was born. Paisley and her sister, Oaklee, 1, love animals, especially the family’s pet goat.
“My family means everything to me,” Timmy says. “I’ll work day in and day out just to make sure they can get what they need.”