Satha Kilgore, owner of Missouri-based livestock-hauling fleet S&J Kilgore Trucking, launched the business with family in 1996 and has been hauling mostly butcher cattle since.
Kilgore still drives almost daily as part of his 17-truck fleet, with around 27 operators that haul for him or pull his trailers. The fleet operates in the Midwest, Southeast and Northwest, including with the truck he's been driving local, mostly, since January of 2023, the pristine '71 Peterbilt 359 EXHD you can catch plenty views of in the video up top. It's part of a stable of other long-hood Petes, though Kilgore owns one Kenworth and a couple of cabovers, too.
The trucks range from new 2023 models all the way back to the '71 359, which he bought about a year and a half ago. It was on display at the 2023 Guilty By Association Truck Show in Joplin, Missouri, where we caught up with him.
"Like any good cattle hauler," he said, “we’ll go anywhere if the money’s right.”
S&J Kilgore's go-go-going today, he noted: business has been strong in recent years even as other freight has slowed. He has six reefer trailers in the fleet, but taking refuge from poor rates he’s only been running one or two of them part-time to fill in the gaps as of late.
“The cattle industry is really good for us,” he said. The small fleet benefits from the difficult nature of the work.
“Not a lot of people want to do what we do. These butcher cows, it’s dangerous. You got to want to do what we do," he said. "I’ve had some cousins get hurt real bad."
