Western Livestock Journal: History, Ownership, Coverage and Staff
Profile updated November 2026
Western Livestock Journal has delivered cattle news every week since 1922, when the Los Angeles Union Stock Yards loaned a young newspaperman $5,000 to start a market paper. Three generations of the Crow family ran it for a century before selling to an Oklahoma livestock marketing group.
| Founded | 1922, Los Angeles Union Stock Yards |
|---|---|
| Founder | Nelson R. Crow |
| Original name | Farm and Ranch Market Journal (renamed 1934) |
| Owner | National Livestock Group, Oklahoma City, since 2022 |
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Special issues | North American Bull Guide and other special editions |
| Official website | WLJ.net |
History of Western Livestock Journal
Nelson R. Crow started the weekly Farm and Ranch Market Journal in Los Angeles in 1922 to report livestock markets for the Union Stock Yards. The paper took the Western Livestock Journal name in 1934, and in the 1950s the Crows opened a Denver branch; Crow Publications once occupied the whole fourth floor of the Livestock Exchange Building at the National Western complex. In 1952 Crow bought Livestock Magazine from the Biggs family.
Nelson passed the business to his son Dick in 1968, and grandson Pete Crow took over in the early 1990s. Over the years the company ran regional weekly editions and monthly magazines before merging the weeklies into one national Western Livestock Journal in the late 1980s. The family and WLJ staff earned several Beef Improvement Federation Ambassador Awards for reporting on performance testing.
In March 2022, having reached his goal of taking WLJ to 100 years, Pete Crow sold the paper to National Livestock of Oklahoma City. The Crow family received the 2024 Friend of the National Western award from the National Western Stock Show for a century of service to the livestock industry.
Western Livestock Journal Today
Western Livestock Journal LLC continues as a weekly print newspaper with an e-edition, special edition magazines including the annual North American Bull Guide, and digital news at WLJ.net. Under National Livestock, the paper has added resources while keeping its traditional focus on markets, policy and cattle production.
Pete Crow, now publisher emeritus, has kept writing his column, while a younger staff runs day-to-day reporting.
What Western Livestock Journal Is Publishing Now
Markets
Weekly cattle market reports, futures commentary and auction summaries remain the core, true to the paper's stockyards roots.
Policy and land
Western issues such as public lands grazing, water, endangered species and federal regulation get heavy coverage.
Production and seedstock
Genetics, bull buying and seedstock marketing dominate the North American Bull Guide and commercial cattle issues.
Western Livestock Journal Editors and Staff
WLJ's newsroom contacts listed on its site and in recent announcements include:
- Logan Ipsen - President, Western Livestock Journal
- Anna Fortozo - Editorial staff
- Charles Wallace - Editorial staff
- Hannah Jackson - Lead Copy Editor and Circulation Manager
- Pete Crow - Publisher Emeritus and columnist
Who Reads Western Livestock Journal
WLJ's readers are commercial cattle ranchers and seedstock breeders across the West and Plains. The 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 1.9 million U.S. farms and ranches, and the cattle operations among them in the western states face issues, from federal land policy to drought, that WLJ has covered for over a century.
Range cattle, federal paperwork and weather that never cooperates make for a hard week. Ranch families who finish the WLJ market page and still want a laugh can head to farm.FM, where ranch humor and farm satire share a pen with plain old farm humor. The farm jokes are written for people who know a bull sale catalog better than a restaurant menu.
If the name is new to you, farm.FM is the nation's first satirical farm site, with Tractor Tunes country music for farmers on the side. One of its regular writers keeps a whole archive of stories like that.
Western Livestock Journal Sources and Agriculture Authority Links
- Wikipedia: Western Livestock Journal - a summary of the Crow family history.
- WLJ: National Livestock acquires WLJ - the 2022 sale announcement.
- WLJ: Our history of names - the paper's own account of its titles and editions.
- National Western Stock Show: Friend of the National Western - the 2024 honor for the Crow family.
- USDA ERS: Cattle and calf receipts - federal data on the value of the cattle business.
Western Livestock Journal FAQ
When was Western Livestock Journal founded?
Nelson R. Crow founded it in Los Angeles in 1922 as the Farm and Ranch Market Journal; it became Western Livestock Journal in 1934.
Who owns Western Livestock Journal?
National Livestock Group of Oklahoma City bought WLJ from the Crow family in March 2022.
How often is WLJ published?
WLJ is a weekly newspaper, with an e-edition and special magazines such as the North American Bull Guide.
Where is the WLJ archive?
Much of the paper's physical history is held at the Colorado State University Library's Agricultural and Natural Resources Archive.
A century of weekly deadlines is a rare thing in any industry. Western Livestock Journal keeps meeting them, giving western ranchers market news and policy reporting they cannot get anywhere else.