‘A Life-Long Dream’ Realized

Three local cattlemen – Charles Zapalac, Todd Fritsch and Cody Leopold – recently purchased the Schulenburg Livestock Auction.

They’re switching the sale day from Saturday to Wednesday. The first sale under new ownership will take place Wednesday, Sept. 30, starting at noon.

“It’s pretty much been a lifelong dream of mine,” said Zapalac, who will manage day-to-day operations at the barn. “I always wanted to own an auction barn. I always had the idea of staying local, but I wasn’t sure if that would ever happen. So when this opportunity came up with Todd, he called me one evening and said, ‘Hey, you want to do this?’ And I said, ‘Yes, sir, I sure do.’” Fritsch, who’s been a coowner of the Giddings Livestock auction since 2021, said a realtor approached him a few years ago with an opportunity to buy Schulenburg Livestock.

“We were kind of still getting Giddings off the ground,” Fritsch said. “I wasn’t interested at the time.”

However, since investing in Giddings, Fritsch said he’s tried expanding into the southern part of Fayette County.

“I’ve worked that territory really hard south of La Grange,” Fritsch said. “Even more specifically, south of Swiss Alp. As we know, the county kind of operates as two separate counties sometimes. It’s divided – not for a wrong reason or good reason – it’s just the way it operates. I noticed that there were a lot of people who were my friends, but I couldn’t get them to go north. It just wasn’t in their circle of business to take cattle somewhere else, even though I was friends with them or they were family.

“So I got to thinking that if I could provide a service down there, and get some partners in that area, I think we could garner some people who would want to bring their cattle to Schulenburg.”

Fritsch found those partners in Leopold and Zapalac. Fritsch said he knew Zapalac had long-wanted to get into the auction barn business, and he knew Leopold as a major cattle marketer from the Hallettsville area. “It had to be a strategic partnership of people that would be able to get the cattle,” Fritsch said.

The real estate deal closed on Aug. 14. Since then, the new owners have undertaken some significant improvements to the auction barn facility, which is located just east of the Schulenburg City Limits on Hwy. 90. They rebuilt the scale system and remodeled the restrooms, office, foyer and sale ring areas.

The Schulenburg auction had fallen on slow times in recent years. Zapalac said Saturday sales don’t attract buyers or sellers like they used to.

“Saturdays or weekends are family time, where people don’t get out and pen cattle any more,” Zapalac said. “People don’t work cattle like they used to on the weekends. They go and visit their grandkids or kids or that kind of stuff. And then as far as the cattle companies, it’s hard to get cattle moved. It’s hard to get guys to process cattle on a Sunday. Some buyers may be out on a Saturday and we don’t want it to affect our market. So that was a big part of making the change to Wednesday.”

Schulenburg Livestock will receive cattle at the barn throughout the day on Mondays and Tuesdays, and on Wednesday mornings. Anyone needing to move cattle for sale other days can call the barn at (979) 743-6566 to arrange pickup.

“If you penned a bull on Saturday and he’s too bad to keep, bring him to the barn,” Fritsch said. “We’ll give him water and hay and sell him on Wednesday. And we’ll assist in the local area picking up those cattle.

“If they got too big of a load for their trailer, we’ll come with a bigger trailer,” he added. “There’s no use in them making two or three trips. We can come with a gooseneck and load them up at one time. Or if they’ve got that one crazy animal or wild bull or something they can’t get loaded, we’ll send somebody to help get them on the trailer.”

The cafe at the auction barn will also reopen under a new name, KZ’s Cafe.

“The guy who’s going to run it is Kaden Zinnante,” Fritsch said. “He’s the son of Pete Zinnante, who previously had the cafe. Pete’s taking a job at Vara Ranch, over in Columbus. It’s a hunting ranch, and he’s the chef over there. But his son is excited to take it over, and Pete and his family are going to be assisting him. It’s going to be American comfort food, some steaks, and stuff like that. It’s going to be a really nice cafe with home-cooked food during the week.”

The cafe will be open Tuesday through Friday. The cafe’s official opening day will be Tuesday, Sept. 29 – the day before the first sale – although there may be a softopening before then.

The new owners have been making the rounds to community celebrations and church picnics. During the Schulenburg Festival earlier this month, they entered a float in the parade. Zapalac said he hopes Schulenburg Livestock will become an even bigger part of the local business community.

“When you start bringing people to town, everyone benefits,” he said. “You get people to stop and do a little business. They might stop at the feed store. They may stop at the hardware store. They may go to the grocery store. They may stop and eat at a restaurant in town. I think it’ll be good for us, and it’ll be good for the town.”