Latest / CattleUSA Daily / 307: Young Blood in the Auction World and Why the Industry Needs It Right Now with Jace Thompson

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307: Young Blood in the Auction World and Why the Industry Needs It Right Now with Jace Thompson · CattleUSA Daily

• 0:00
  We are welcoming Jace Thompson on to the Cattle USA Daily
• 0:03
  podcast today. Jace is another one of our 2026
• 0:07
  King of the Ring contestants. And Jace is on today to share
• 0:11
  more about his story, his start in the auction business and his
• 0:15
  journey as a young professional within the auction business.
• 0:19
  His takes on growing up within the auction business, starting
• 0:22
  his career in IT, and his short four years that he's been a
• 0:26
  professional auctioneer, what that has kind of looked like for
• 0:28
  him and then what the future holds for him as well.
• 0:32
  Before we hop into today's podcast episode with Jayce, if
• 0:34
  you're watching on YouTube, make sure you take a second to hit
• 0:36
  that subscribe button and like this episode.
• 0:39
  And if you're watching on any of our other podcast platforms,
• 0:41
  make sure you take a second to go follow the show and write and
• 0:43
  review it as well. Without further ado, let's go
• 0:46
  ahead and hear from Jayce Thompson.
• 0:51
  Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily podcast, your go to source for
• 0:55
  the latest livestock markets, industry insights and the
• 0:58
  updates shaping agriculture today.
• 1:00
  I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a passionate advocate for
• 1:03
  agriculture, here to keep you informed and connected.
• 1:06
  Now let's dive into today's episode.
• 1:13
  Jayce, welcome to the podcast. I am so excited to have you on
• 1:17
  this year to talk about your story as an auctioneer as we
• 1:22
  continue to prepare for the King of the Ring contest coming up
• 1:25
  here in a few weeks. You're one of our contestants
• 1:27
  for this year, and so I'm really excited to come on and have you
• 1:30
  on today to share about your story and all the things.
• 1:32
  So if you could just kind of take it away and share a little
• 1:35
  bit about your background, your history and who you are.
• 1:37
  Yeah. Thanks, Lauren.
• 1:38
  You finally tracked me down. I missed you last year.
• 1:40
  You were trying to get me on and kind of escaped you for the
• 1:43
  year, but I got on today barely. So it's a nice to to be in here
• 1:47
  and be on the podcast. You got a cool thing going.
• 1:49
  I think for sure, as far as my story goes, I'm probably one of
• 1:52
  the younger guys. I think I am the youngest guy in
• 1:54
  the contest as far as the King of the ring goes.
• 1:56
  Just been up here in Billings, Mt my whole life.
• 1:58
  Born and raised here. Kind of started selling some
• 2:01
  small sales around Billings. Got my start selling way up cows
• 2:04
  and then kind of graduated into selling some more benefit
• 2:07
  auctions and kind of got into the horse sale a little bit, got
• 2:10
  into a car auction here in town. So as time has went on, kind of
• 2:13
  expanded my horizons there probably been selling
• 2:16
  professionally about four or five years, but I've been kind
• 2:19
  of in the auction industry my whole entire life, been around
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  it and and I had no other choice in a sense.
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  So grew up around it and had no reason to leave billing.
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  So this is where I've stayed. I traveled for quite a few sales
• 2:31
  and find myself across the country and I'm excited to come
• 2:34
  down to Dodge City for the King of the Ring.
• 2:36
  Yes, it'll be a great contest once again.
• 2:39
  And we're so excited to have you back for two years in a row to
• 2:41
  come and compete and bring some young blood into the contest as
• 2:46
  well. And I really give us some of
• 2:48
  that diversity as far as your story goes and just really
• 2:53
  getting your start in auctioneering.
• 2:55
  Tell me a little bit more about you grew up in the auction
• 2:58
  industry. Just tell me more about like,
• 3:00
  when did that bug first spite you and when did you really
• 3:03
  first kind of decide like, hey, I could be a fan of this, I
• 3:07
  could do this, then maybe make a career out of it.
• 3:10
  Yeah, well, so my family is both my grandfather and my father.
• 3:15
  They have been in the auction business mostly their whole
• 3:18
  lives. My grandpa got started real
• 3:20
  young, built a really big business from just from nothing.
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  And he auctioneered there at Barnes across Wyoming his whole
• 3:27
  life. And then my dad, he grew up in
• 3:29
  Wyoming, auctioneered there in Wyoming and then moved up here
• 3:32
  to Billings. And I've been working here with
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  the Goggins family for 25 plus years.
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  And then I've grown up with those two guys as kind of my
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  mentors. And then also Billings that you
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  know, the Goggins family and there's so many really talented
• 3:46
  auctioneers around here that I've just grown up with them as
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  as kind of the look up to. And we have some of the biggest
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  video sales and horse sales in Billings here that there is in
• 3:56
  the country. So I grew up around that.
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  Just kind of the preface of where I got my start, I grew up
• 4:02
  around that. So I was able to to have some
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  really good examples and kind of grow off of those, those people
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  in those sales. And I've always had an interest
• 4:11
  in auctioneering, never knew that I wanted to do it for a
• 4:13
  career. Got out of high school, I went
• 4:16
  to college for a little bit, decided that wasn't going to
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  work real well for me and kind of got into some real estate
• 4:21
  stuff. I was working at the sale barn
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  sort and cattle and then working did some house remodels and some
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  real estate projects. And then kind of just decided I
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  I'd give the auctioneer in a full time go and run with it.
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  And like you say, you get bit by the bug and you're kind of
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  infected and you have no choice. But it's been a really good, you
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  know, it's kind of transformed. I've become more passionate
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  about, but as I went on, you know, I, it was something I was
• 4:46
  just going to try at 1st and then got a little rocky there
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  and, and wasn't sure if I was going to continue with it.
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  And as I got better and, and more well known and more versed
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  in the industry, the more fun it became and the more enjoyable it
• 5:01
  became. So it's really, really evolved
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  into something that I'm passionate about versus when I
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  first got started, I didn't have quite as much passion for it.
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  But I think it's something that in this industry grows with you.
• 5:12
  Yeah, absolutely. So when we're talking a little
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  bit more about your story and you've been doing this
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  professionally for about four years now, you've said, can you
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  walk us through what that journey has kind of looked like
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  as a young professional in the industry and what has really
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  been like for you starting your career within the auction
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  business? Yeah, So I would, most of the
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  places I go within this business, I'm the youngest guy
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  by far in my personal opinion. Kind of a side note, I think
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  that that's one of the biggest things that the industry is
• 5:41
  lacking is young blood. But it was definitely a
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  challenge. I didn't have a lot of natural
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  capabilities for. It definitely was a just, you
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  know, you asked about how I said it was kind of a rocky start.
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  It just, I didn't have a lot of natural talent and a lot of
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  natural knowledge to the industry.
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  So it was just a tough learning curve.
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  And I'm still going through it, you know, but it was definitely,
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  there was, there's so much to learn in this business.
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  And so that was probably the, the, the hardest part.
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  And as I've learned more, I've gotten more comfortable in the
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  business, gotten to know a lot more people, make better
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  connections. But, but as far as being the
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  youngest guy at some of these contests and stuff, I look at it
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  as more of a refreshing idea and standpoint is, you know, I can
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  kind of add a little bit of, of youthful energy to, to the
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  business into the contest and and hopefully also encourage
• 6:30
  some other young people my age to get into the business.
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  As well, I agree with you on the standpoint that it is really
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  encouraging to see a young professional in the business and
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  that it's also kind of a concern within the auction business
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  right now that there isn't enough individuals coming into
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  this business to replace those that are stepping out of it.
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  And I think that we see that more and more, especially with
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  our older generation. You tell the story, you hear the
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  story all the time of, well, I stepped away and then Rodney
• 6:57
  called me up and he pulled on my arm a little bit too long and I
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  stepped back into it. And so we've got individuals
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  that are stepping away and stepping back into it because
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  there's such a need for auctioneers, but we don't have
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  the young individuals within the industry or placing them.
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  What are kind of your thoughts on just that part of the
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  industry, being a young professional in it?
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  And then just some thoughts or encouragement to other young
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  individuals maybe to look the auction business as well.
• 7:24
  Yeah. I think to answer that, I'll
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  answer the end of your question first.
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  I think that some thoughts or encouragement to young people
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  would be that there's more opportunity for people our age
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  right now than I think there's ever been.
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  And I think that there's a lot of optimism looking forward.
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  So I don't think that they should be scared of that in a,
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  in a standpoint of of, you know, there being opportunity or there
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  being a path for them to take. If there's room for them, I
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  think there's plenty of room and plenty of opportunity.
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  But I think the hardest thing is you have to like it.
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  I was fortunate enough I spoke on a small panel there in
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  Bozeman a few weeks ago at the college and I told those I, I
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  call them kids, but they're just about my age.
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  But I told them that, you know, it's, it's a hard business no
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  matter how you look at it, whatever.
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  And not just the auctioneering side, but the cattle side too.
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  Whether you're going to go into ranching or, or feeding, you
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  have to enjoy it. And if you don't enjoy it, then
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  there's no sense in doing it because you can go, you know,
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  and I, you can go find something easier, right?
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  If you're doing it for, for the, the ease of it.
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  And there's no sense in getting into the cattle side of things.
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  But I think that's the biggest challenge facing our industry
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  is, is that, you know, you, you have so many different sectors
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  posing a threat, you know, like the trades and stuff.
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  I mean, you can go work and climate controlled building or
• 8:44
  whatever as an electrician and get paid 60 to 80 a year.
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  Why are you going to go bust your butt traveling down the
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  road all day, all night, you know, auctioneering or ranching
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  or farming or feeding or, or whatever.
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  So I got a little off track there.
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  But I, I would say that definitely, definitely that
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  there, there's more opportunity in this deal for, for people my
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  age than there has ever. Been, yeah, there absolutely is
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  An big part of what you talked about in your story previously
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  was that you had your dad and your grandpa as really amazing
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  mentors within your journey as well.
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  Can you talk a little bit more about that and then how that
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  mentorship has LED you to where you are right now and having the
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  success that you have had so far in your career as well?
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  Yeah. I mean, like I said, this
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  business is tough. It's a tough business to be in
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  and you can't, in my opinion, you can't do it alone.
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  And if you do do it alone, I got a lot of respect for you because
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  it's really hard and it's really expensive too.
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  So I think it's important whether you know, I had my dad
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  and my grandpa and I've had quite a few others along the way
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  that have helped me out and, and just, and it's, it's not as much
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  from a monetary standpoint as it is from there's so much
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  information involved, especially on the cattle side of things,
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  but also the auctioneering side. There's so much information,
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  there's so much psychology that you have to have somebody that
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  can kind of lay a road map for you and, and let you know what
• 10:07
  to expect and also present you with some opportunities to, to
• 10:11
  take advantage of. And both my grandfather and my
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  father, as well as there's been many others that that have
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  helped me out and still do help me out.
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  I mean, like I say, it's a lot of money and a lot of, a lot of
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  roadblocks that you have to get through and, and you can't,
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  can't do that alone. And like I said, if you do it's
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  I got a lot of respect for you. Yeah, many people, when they
• 10:30
  start their auction journey, they go to auctioneer school,
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  they do their time there, they get their chance going, they do
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  all of those things. They listen to the tapes, the
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  YouTube videos, all of those things.
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  But I think there's so much other nuance involved within
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  what you do as a career that people don't always talk about
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  all the time. And I think that you've made
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  some really great points today, Jace, about you have to
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  understand the in and outs in the nuances of every single
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  thing that you are selling, whether it be genetics within
• 10:58
  the cattle industry or whether it be, like you said, the
• 11:00
  psychology of really working a crowd or things like that.
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  And there's a lot of education that goes into it as well.
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  What are kind of your thoughts on just outside of the classroom
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  work and education that you've had to do as an auctioneer and
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  some encouragement or just thoughts for other people
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  pursuing this as well of what that's kind of looked like for
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  you and how to go about that? Yeah, I would say, you know,
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  like I said, I wasn't a very scholastic person at all.
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  I didn't didn't get along very well in college.
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  But I've learned more and, and maybe it's just the way I
• 11:34
  learned, but I've learned more being hands on in the field,
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  whatever it is, whether it's pushing cattle up in the
• 11:40
  alleyway or work in the the indoor while somebody else is
• 11:43
  selling. I've learned more just by
• 11:45
  forcing myself to do as many different things as I can within
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  the industry. Then I have, like you say in a
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  classroom. I think auctioneer school is
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  great. As far as the auctioneer school
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  goes, I think it's great, but there's that, that's just the
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  tip of the iceberg. I mean, it's, there's so, so
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  much more involved in it. There's so much more to learn
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  and you only learn that by doing it.
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  And it takes a long time. Like I said, I'm still learning
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  myself, and I think it's important that you're always
• 12:12
  still learning, but it takes a long time to learn and a lot of
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  commitment and effort to learn that because it gets pretty
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  tough at times. Yeah, absolutely.
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  So when you look out kind of on the rest of your career, what
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  you have in front of you, and I'm not necessarily talking
• 12:26
  about the next 50 years, but maybe the next 5 to 10 years of
• 12:30
  kind of where you are right now as an auctioneer.
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  What are you really striving towards and focusing on as a
• 12:35
  professional within the industry?
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  You know, I, I, I've gotten to where I, I want to keep
• 12:41
  expanding my horizons. I, you know, I, I, I'm never
• 12:45
  going to say no to a new opportunity if it, if it fits
• 12:47
  what I'm doing. I've kind of got established in
• 12:50
  the commercial and purebred cattle side of things or am
• 12:52
  getting established, I should say.
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  And so I think just continuing that, continuing to make, make
• 12:57
  good connections. You know, every time I travel,
• 13:01
  I, I meet someone new that is, is a good connection.
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  And I think just continuing to expand my horizons and and being
• 13:08
  open minded to to a new experience or to to do something
• 13:11
  new. Yeah, for sure.
• 13:12
  So taking a step outside of your story and your journey a little
• 13:16
  bit and just kind of talking about the cattle industry and
• 13:19
  what the world of the cattle industry is right now.
• 13:22
  As an auctioneer, as a professional in the industry
• 13:24
  that's selling these animals every single day.
• 13:26
  Both, like you said, on the purebred side, but then also on
• 13:29
  the commercial side as well. What are kind of your thoughts
• 13:31
  on what we're seeing in the industry and just your take on
• 13:35
  it from an auctioneer's mindset? Yeah, I would.
• 13:38
  There'd be much more qualified people to talk about the market
• 13:41
  than me. But from what I see hands on
• 13:44
  every day, we're just in an absolute, absolutely phenomenal
• 13:47
  times. A little bit tense in a sense,
• 13:50
  just because, you know, we've been saying, I've heard ALT all
• 13:53
  different people say for a year, year and a half that we can't go
• 13:56
  any higher. It's not this is the top and we
• 14:00
  keep testing new highs. And I mean the, the one thing
• 14:03
  that is optimistic for me is that we've proved that people
• 14:07
  want to eat American beef, good American beef, no matter what
• 14:11
  because we've we haven't found the top yet I guess is what I'm
• 14:14
  saying. So we've proved that the demand
• 14:16
  is there and will be there for a while and we've proved that our
• 14:19
  numbers are extremely short. And I mean we have a lot of
• 14:23
  national tension going on right now on the markets testing new
• 14:26
  highs today. I think it's just that we've
• 14:29
  shown a short supply and and very high demand and I think
• 14:33
  that the fundamentals are great. Yeah, absolutely.
• 14:35
  I was having a conversation with someone else last week and they
• 14:38
  were saying that it's a really great time to also be an
• 14:40
  auctioneer because you've got people smiling back at you in
• 14:43
  the audience right now. And it makes it a little bit
• 14:45
  more fun to do your job and continue to sell these cattle
• 14:49
  every day, no matter what situation or scenario, whether
• 14:52
  you're selling them in, whether you're selling bowls at
• 14:55
  someone's operation that is having their annual bowl sale,
• 14:58
  or whether you're selling pot loads of stalkers or different
• 15:01
  things like that. It's a really great time to be
• 15:04
  within the industry and to kind of be in the position that we're
• 15:08
  all in right now. It's encouraging that we're all
• 15:10
  winning and enjoying it a little bit more these days, especially
• 15:13
  as we go into spring busy season, which I'm sure that you
• 15:16
  also partake quite a bit and with bowl sale season coming
• 15:20
  around the corner and everything like that, that as well.
• 15:22
  But Jase, as we continue to just kind of wrap up this podcast and
• 15:27
  close things out, what other pieces of advice do you have for
• 15:31
  people just looking to get into this industry, whether it be
• 15:35
  stepping into shoes of an auctioneer or whether it just be
• 15:39
  kind of like looking into different career options and
• 15:41
  they're maybe looking at their college textbooks.
• 15:43
  Like you were insane. I don't know if this is for me
• 15:46
  and I'm just someone who's been in the career for a while.
• 15:48
  What do you have to say about being an auctioneer and just
• 15:51
  some encouragement for them? Yeah, Well, I do want to circle
• 15:53
  back. I think I did kind of a poor job
• 15:56
  answering your question about, you know, what advice I would
• 15:58
  have for the young people coming in and how I can how I view
• 16:01
  that. One thing I wanted to add to
• 16:03
  that, I kind of got sidetracked. But one thing I want to add to
• 16:06
  that is I think it's important for the young guys to find a
• 16:09
  mentor and get into it. But I think it's also just
• 16:12
  equally as important for for older veterans that have been in
• 16:15
  this business to be welcome those guys with open arms and be
• 16:19
  those mentors because they need them and the industry needs them
• 16:21
  more than than ever right now. So I think that's just in
• 16:24
  addition to what I had said earlier.
• 16:26
  But as far as as somebody that's maybe just getting started out,
• 16:29
  I would say if if you know you want to be in this industry,
• 16:32
  there's a tons of opportunity within the whole industry,
• 16:35
  whether it's the auction industry, the cattle industry,
• 16:37
  any agricultural industry, there's tons of opportunity.
• 16:40
  In my opinion, I would say find out, try to narrow down where
• 16:44
  you want to be and, and then put your time into that.
• 16:48
  And like I said, get as as many experiences within that sector
• 16:52
  of the industry as you can. You know, you might have to do
• 16:55
  some crappy things, but you find out what you don't like in in
• 16:59
  the midst of that. I would say that's where I've
• 17:01
  learned the most is just making myself do as much as I can,
• 17:05
  wherever it may be and learning what I do and do not like and
• 17:09
  kind of being able to narrow my career path down that way.
• 17:13
  So I would say just do something whether, whether it whatever it
• 17:17
  is, just do something and learn from that experience and time
• 17:21
  will take care of it. In my opinion, if you're working
• 17:23
  hard and and putting your effort towards it, time will take care.
• 17:26
  Of it, I could not agree more. One of the best things that I
• 17:28
  did as a young individual trying to figure out where I wanted my
• 17:32
  place to be in agriculture was, was to try a lot of things.
• 17:36
  And you know what? There was a lot of error in that
• 17:39
  trialing and there were a lot of things that did not stick and
• 17:43
  did not work. But you will, you'll inevitably
• 17:45
  find your niche. Because I think so often as
• 17:48
  young agriculturalist, we, we look at agriculture, we're like,
• 17:52
  oh, where do we want our career to be?
• 17:53
  Do we want to be a veterinarian? Do we want to be a rancher?
• 17:56
  Do we want to work in AG marketing?
• 17:58
  Like what is what do we want to do?
• 17:59
  But there's so many different career possibilities with an
• 18:03
  agriculture, like you can be a banker, but focused on AG
• 18:06
  products or things like that. And I think that it's so
• 18:09
  encouraging to hear from the other, another young individual
• 18:11
  in the industry as well. The same take on it of you do
• 18:14
  just have to get out there and you do just have to start trying
• 18:17
  things because you are not going to know if you like it or don't
• 18:20
  like it until you just start trying it out.
• 18:22
  And kind of figuring out along the way.
• 18:25
  Like you said, Jace, finding some mentors or finding some
• 18:28
  other people that can kind of really take you under their wing
• 18:30
  and give you the lowdown on what it's like to work in that career
• 18:34
  every single day and kind of help you along your path in that
• 18:38
  career journey as well. So this has been just such a
• 18:41
  wonderful, wonderful talk today. Jace, do you have anything else
• 18:44
  that you would like to say as we wrap up the podcast today?
• 18:46
  No, unless you have some more questions for me, that's that's
• 18:49
  all I got for you. I'm excited to be down in Dodge
• 18:51
  here in a month. Yes, we are so excited to have
• 18:55
  you. It is like we were saying off
• 18:57
  air, it is going to be here in the blink of an eye.
• 18:59
  I swear it was just April first yesterday and now we're halfway
• 19:02
  through the month. So just how spring tends to fly
• 19:05
  by. We will be down in Dodge on May
• 19:08
  2nd and we cannot wait to have you and to have all the other
• 19:11
  contestants down there to sell some cattle and to honor some
• 19:15
  really amazing legacies as well. So Jace, this has been a really,
• 19:18
  really awesome interview. It's been awesome to hear more
• 19:20
  about your story and how you got into the and, and encouragement
• 19:23
  that you had to share as a young individual within the livestock
• 19:27
  marketing industry. So thank you so much for your
• 19:29
  time and for coming on today. We really appreciate it.
• 19:32
  Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for all you're doing
• 19:33
  too. You're doing a good job with
• 19:35
  your program as well. Thank you so much, Jace, to all
• 19:37
  of our listeners. Thanks for tuning in to another
• 19:39
  episode of the Cattle USA Daily Podcast.
• 19:41
  We will see you all next time on another episode.
• 19:44
  Have a good one y'all.