Brennan Jack, a Saskatchewan-born auctioneer, is heading to the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship in June. “I was second last year and third in 2014. It’s a very, very, very difficult contest to win, but I’m really gunning for it, hoping that 2026 is my year,” auctioneer Brennan Jack said. Jack is currently working in Virden, Man., but he is originally from Saskatchewan. “My parents were born and raised on the farm, and we had cattle growing up,” he recalled. Instead of toy cars and wooden swords, Jack was interested in his family’s trade. “I started selling when I was nine years old,” he said. “I sold my first million-dollar sale when I was 12 and started working full time when I was 16.” He soon ventured into the world of competitions. “That’s how I got my first job offer. I was competing in the Grain Millers Harvest Showdown auctioneer competition, which was held in Yorkton many years ago,” Jack told CTV News. “I just moved through all the competitions around Canada, and I was fortunate enough to win all of those.” The next step was the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship, held annually in the United States. “This will be my 11th time going back to the world championship,” Jack said. Jack said there will be one more Canadian in the competition: an auctioneer from southern Alberta. “They come mostly from across the United States. I’ve probably competed against about 25 of the 31 competitors who are going to be there,” he said. The two-day event is made up of two parts. On the first day, competitors are given three questions to answer to the best of their knowledge. “Some of the questions are simple, like ‘What made you become an auctioneer?’ ‘What would you do if you were crowned champion?’ or ‘What would you talk to an inner city group of school kids about if they asked about beef?’” Simple for those who know the trade, and according to Jack, it’s one of the skills a good auctioneer needs to possess. It is something he passes down to his mentees. On the second day, competitors do what they do best: sell. “Most of us will sell anywhere—it could be 200 head, it could be 500 head. But there will be a total somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 head on the day,” he explained to CTV News. There’s an art to selling livestock. “[A good auctioneer is] one who knows the product they’re selling, has a good, rhythmical chant that can move along the sales, and has clarity so everybody knows where the prices are,” he said. For laypeople, an auctioneer’s fast-paced chant may sound similar, but different regions have different styles. “We’re normally used to selling bigger groups. [The Northwestern chant] is a little bit slower-paced,” he said. The smaller the load, the faster the chant. “If you move to the southern states, it’s a lot of faster selling of smaller lots. Then, if you get to the eastern side of the country, it’s all singles, so it’s very quick. They’re selling them one at a time, very, very fast, so their chant has a lot of urgency,” Jack explained. All of these auctioneers will compete in Deadwood, South Dakota in June to claim the title of World Champion and represent more than 800 markets across North America.
