Calgary Stampede auctioneer championship a selling success

Times Reporter    

 

The Calgary Stampede held their tri-annual Auctioneer Championships on Friday, July 11 at the Calgary Stockyards. 

The Top 10 out of 26 contestants who auctioned off their cattle successfully moved on to the Calgary Stampede championship on July 12.  

Since the event is only held every three years, it gives everyone in the auction industry time to catch up, re-live old memories and compete against each other to see who can get the most money out of selling their livestock.

“This is where I started my auction career, here in Strathmore (in 1988) and I have sold all kinds of different venues (such as) cattle cars and heavy equipment,” said Rob Bergevin, an auctioneer from Stavely, Alta. 

Bergevin has been in the cattle industry for many years, as well as lived in the country, and just started getting back into cattle nine years ago.

“In 2005 we bought the auction market in Stavely, Alta. along with the Bernshaw Load and we got back into cattle.”

With the purchase of the auction and cattle yard, this was more encouraging than anything for Bergevin to enter these cattle-related contests. 

He has had success since his first one as “I entered a contest, there were 27 auctioneers and I placed 27th,” said Bergevin. 

However, the stakes for Bergevin have since risen, as he has been able to reach the Top 10 in consecutive years since then.

The auctioneers are in need of a strategy to stay competitive when cattle auction approaches. 

“Coming to these competition forces you to be a better auctioneer. So I watch auctioneers on video and You-Tube and try and incorporate what they do in my chant,” said Bergevin.

In these types of auctions, you need to be professional, know the value of the cattle you’re selling, and know what market is available to have a sale for. 

“The bottom line is that you work for a producer and try to get as much money as we can for (our producers) and if we can become a better auctioneer it will give us that opportunity,” said Bergevin.  

One of the event organizers, Bryan Danard, has seen many of these auctions held at the Calgary Stockyard and really is thrilled about the different auctioneers that come and compete against one another.

“This event is held every three years and I am on the committee and just good to get the whole industry (auctioneers and their owners) together. We got auctioneers from the US and Canada and have a good get-together during Stampede,” said Danard.  

To market a marquee event such as this one involves having a stable marketplace for the auction to be held in, and according to Danard, timing could not be any better.

“The timing of it is very good and the fact that (there are) very few cattle … at (this) time (of) year, so it is a strong market,” he said. “I firmly believe in the auction method of selling cattle in price discovery and I just like to support the sale.”

The process of determining auctioneers is that it is open entry to anyone, with the exception that if you won the auction before you cannot come back.

Danard bought into the business in 2003, and this year marks 20 years for the auctioneer championships. 

The winners for this year’s auctioneer championship overall were Travis Rogers, Dan Clark, Jeff Bynum, Shawn Gist and rookie Tyler Slawinski.