Different but still the same

[SBMF 2015]

Sixteen years ago I used to sort and sometimes fill in as ringman for the highest grossing sale barn in the state. It was nothing like your western sale barns but big for the mid west. After it closed I got my auctioneers license and sold/ ringed/ sorted for this other local barn. That lasted a couple years then life got busy and I didn’t renew my license.
Fast forward fourteen years and I got the itch to be back in the ring. I talked with the sale barn manager and three weeks ago they were short on help. I showed up to watch the sale and they threw me in the ring. Been there every week since.
It’s a smaller barn than where I used to work but it’s just the same. Two or three order buyers, regular farmers, and first time auction goers who don’t really understand what’s going on.
I’m having a blast! I love the sale barn business and how all the people and different types of livestock fit to make it work. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 10lb bottle baby goat or a ton mrkt bull, there’s a buyer for everything.

 

[kenny thomas]

Sixteen years ago I used to sort and sometimes fill in as ringman for the highest grossing sale barn in the state. It was nothing like your western sale barns but big for the mid west. After it closed I got my auctioneers license and sold/ ringed/ sorted for this other local barn. That lasted a couple years then life got busy and I didn’t renew my license.
Fast forward fourteen years and I got the itch to be back in the ring. I talked with the sale barn manager and three weeks ago they were short on help. I showed up to watch the sale and they threw me in the ring. Been there every week since.
It’s a smaller barn than where I used to work but it’s just the same. Two or three order buyers, regular farmers, and first time auction goers who don’t really understand what’s going on.
I’m having a blast! I love the sale barn business and how all the people and different types of livestock fit to make it work. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 10lb bottle baby goat or a ton mrkt bull, there’s a buyer for everything.

I wish I had learned when I was young. As you know a good auctioneer will pretty well know who will get which animal. Our auctioneer is 82 year old and still works every Saturday. Maybe sometime I can come watch you.

 

[SBMF 2015]

I wish I had learned when I was young. As you know a good auctioneer will pretty well know who will get which animal. Our auctioneer is 82 year old and still works every Saturday. Maybe sometime I can come watch you.

I’m pretty rusty, but I still catch myself practicing while I’m driving places or on a tractor.
I’ve watched some true masters of auctioneering and I’ve also listened to some atrocious ones too.

 

[DLD]

I’m not an auctioneer, but about 17 years ago a good friend of mine called and said “I just bought a sale barn, I need you to come help me run it”. And for 16 years I did - at one point or another, I did pretty much everything there was to do there, but most of the time I ran the scales, and helped out in the office before and after the sale. A little over 14 years in my friend was diagnosed with throat cancer. He passed away a little less than a year later. We kept the barn going for almost another a year, but it finally got to be too much for his widow and she sold it. I don’t blame her for selling it, but I sure miss it.

I sell my cattle at another barn now. Some of the same buyers are there, and a couple of our old employees work there. I always stay when I’m selling cattle, and sometimes when I’ve hauled cattle in for someone else. I like being there, but sometimes it’s a little surreal to watch an old familiar scene unfold in a different place and time.

 

[Dave]

The first time I bought a steer at an auction was in 1967. I worked at one in the winters sorting before the sale and penning cattle that came out of the ring in '72 & '73. Even when I am not buying or selling I still go pretty regularly. If you pay attention and a person can learn a lot.

 

[DLD]

I have been around sale barns all my life - selling cattle, hauling in and out. I worked tons of purebred and club calf sales from my mid teens on, so I thought how much different can a plain old sale barn be? To say it was educational would be an understatement. I learned a lot - not just about sale barns and cattle, but people too…