06/20/07 Calling As They See's It

Calling it as they sees it. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. I've always been fascinated by auctioneers. The fast patter and the ability to keep the bids flying while a dozen or more people waved or gestured their next highest bid. It is quite an art and the Livestock Marketing Association has been paying tribute to that art for a long time. MCBRIDE: We do this to put a spotlight on a competitive livestock marketing method which is the best way we believe to get the best price for your livestock. John McBride is the information officer with LMA. MCBRIDE: And we do that also to salute the outstanding auctioneers in the industry who really are still a very important part of the competitive marketing process. What would a cattle auction or any auction be without the auctioneer? Each year, contestants across the U.S. compete in one of 4 regionals. Besides a good pair of lungs, what does it take to become an auctioneer? MCBRIDE: Oh boy  determination, you know their basically one man operations, lots of practice. To get to the level of our contestants it just takes a lot of time in the ring, a lot of time on the auction block selling a lot of livestock. One interesting note is that in all 44 years that LMA has been doing this competition so far only one woman has competed. MCBRIDE: We have seen, I think, one female auctioneer  livestock auctioneer. They are scattered though out the profession selling other things but we don't see too many livestock auctioneers. This year's winner is from the Pacific Northwest. MCBRIDE: Trent Stewart of Redmond, Oregon has been in the contest 8 times. He has finished or has been knocking on the door as we say, runner up in 2002 and last year, has owned a market since 1997, is 32 years old and is just an outstanding auctioneer. According to McBride, once you are a champion, you are always a champion. MCBRIDE: They don't do any repeat performances because of our rules. We have a rule that the only person who can't re-enter the contest is the World Champion. So that's why we have many, many repeat contestants. I have to tell you that the contestants like this  the 2007 World Champion for example, will always be the 2007 World Champion. It won't be that  oh I lost my title in '08 or '09 or whatever, they hold on to that title forever. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.