I can't imagine a sale barn worth owning being less than an extremely full time job. The two owners I've known were on the phone all day long while visiting cattle and caressing buyers.

A local town turned on a long time barn here not too many years ago. Back door calls to the EPA, constant anonymous complaints of odor, you name it & they threw it at it. Most of the complaints were ridiculous as they were actually just after the land, but once they decided it needed to go, it was going to go. Finding and keeping the type of help it takes to make one flow well would be a real struggle anymore too. Those kids barely exist anymore, and the ones who do could be sitting in a tractor for the same or better pay. The liability involved in their work shouldn't be underestimated either, a broken leg used to be no big deal. Today, a broken leg can turn into a nasty lawsuit.  

A couple months ago two buyers got in an argument over who got what cattle going through the ring. One of them appears to be moving to more private buying, which has everyone wondering just how often they were holding prices down by sorting lots and not bidding against each other. Maybe it wasn't happening, and maybe it was. Who knows, what I do know is some guys are taking their loads else where simply based on the rumors.

I'd think having a big enough lot to have a respectable hay auction and a nice enough barn to host production sales would be a decent hedge against the future low cattle prices. Having a good kitchen that can be leased out to a restaurant owner would be a good way to keep that headache off your plate while catering to your customer base. It sounds fun to me, which means it's probably way more stress and life consuming than I realize.