Persistence paid off for Cam Bray at the Canterbury A&P Show last month. The PGG Wrightson auctioneer won the Heartland Bank Young Auctioneers Competition, held during the 152nd annual show, at his third attempt, beating seven other auctioneers from throughout the country.
''It meant a lot to me to win the competition. Auctioneering is a big passion of mine and I hope the win leads to more opportunities.''
Those opportunities will include travelling to the Sydney Royal Easter Show next year to watch the Australian Young Auctioneers Competition.
Auctioneering was not an intentional career path for the 26-year-old from Darfield.
''I've been auctioneering seriously for about three years and I sort of fell into it at the start. I was at an auction and the auctioneer just stopped and dropped me in it.''
Mr Bray said he was impressed at how the level of competition had improved since the first year in 2012.
''The competition has done great things for these young auctioneers. If anything, it's shown the firms that these jokers are keen to work at it. The bar has risen every year, so it's working wonders.''
Contestants were put through their paces over two tough days of competition. Two qualifying events helped whittle the eight entrants down to five finalists.
On Thursday, November 13, contestants were required to go through the opening processes of a sale, sell by mock auction two show cattle and then close the sale.
The event was made more realistic by requiring the competitors to research the animals they were selling, including interviewing the breeder, having bidding restricted to ''plants'' in the crowd and having a selling ring.
Competitors were judged on personal presentation, knowledge of the stock they were selling, use of relevant animal information, and voice, including diction, delivery and patter.
The next morning, they had a 15-minute interview with a new panel of judges, in which they were tested on auction law and auctioneers' responsibilities. Later in the day, the five finalists had to sell three lots.
Competition convener Mick Withers said the judges were impressed at how much the quality had lifted in the three years the event had been running. ''The young guys are obviously putting in the extra effort to lift themselves to the next level. Of particular interest is the incredible knowledge they had of the laws and rules governing the auction process, in one case, possibly better knowledge than the judges themselves.''