Young auctioneer winners - a decade on

This time, we are looking at those winners from 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

See the 2006, 2007 and 2008 winners here.

And tune in on Thursday to watch the latest SA representatives compete on the national stage at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

The 2009 SA competition winner was Nick Harton, Braidwood, NSW, who was working for Elders Naracoorte at the time despite being from NSW.

"I had been competing when I was in NSW already, so I just kept it going while I was down (in SA)," he said.

"I felt it was a good networking tool, if nothing else."

He said it was something he would recommend all young agents to get involved with.

"It is a good networking experience, especially for the South Australian agents because it brings you up to NSW to meet agents from different parts of the world," he said.

"That's probably what I liked about it best."

In the time since his state win, Nick has moved back to NSW, where he continues working as an agent under the Jim Hindmarsh brand - part of the RMA network.

"I have been selling since I came back and started my own business - that is what brought me back to home," he said.

"Then six years ago, I merged my business into another business, just with a few saleyard changes that were happening in the area."

Josh is a two-time winner, having already won in 2008.

See his profile here.

The first time Elders agent Ronnie Dix won the state Young Auctioneer competition in 2011 the only thing the fresh faced 18 year old had ever sold was a pile of books at a clearing sale.

"It was really hard to get a go because I was so young but once I won the competition the first time I remember selling were some Friesian calves at the Mount Gambier yards," he said.

That was the start of much bigger things to come.

After his second win in the state final, in 2015, he became the first SA entrant to win the national competition the following year - something no other SA auctioneer has been able to replicate.

"It is a big step for a South Australian to compete at Sydney," he said.

"The interstate agents are a lot more saleyard focused - they are auctioneers that are agents on the side whereas in SA we are agents that do a bit of auctioneering."

He says he knew he had sold his three steers "nearly fault free" but was still shocked when his name was called.

"Voice, diction and clarity are part of it but first and foremost it is about knowing the value of what you are selling and knowing how to describe good stock," he said.

"Then you need to make sure you are in full control and make sure you don't let people get you off track."

A few months later that same year, he headed to the Calgary Stampede in Canada and even shone on the world stage - winning the Rookie of the Year.

This is awarded to the best auctioneer either under 25 years of age or competing for the first time.

He says the North American way of selling is to call the bid you want rather than the bid you have and while he was able to do this at one of their stock marts ahead of the competition, he decided to stick with what he knew, which paid off.

"Winning in Sydney and Canada, people got to know who I was, which was a big thing for me," he said.

Ronnie - who is Elders branch manager at Lucindale and has built a strong clientele - seems to be a natural born auctioneer, being approachable and loving a chat but it was not always his first career choice.

As a young la,d he wanted to be a farmer but that changed after his father passed away when Ronnie was just 14 years of age and their family farm at Coomandook was leased out.

Several years later while in Year 11 at school - which he was not enjoying - his Mum agreed that he could leave if he found a good job.

He joined Elders as a livestock trainee at Murray Bridge.

Those early days were nomadic, moving 14 times in the first 20 months to branches in the SE of SA and western Vic, including Hamilton, Ballarat and Geelong, but Ronnie says it was a great learning experience and he met so many great people.

After a stint at Naracoorte and Lucindale, he knew it was where he wanted to be.

"I said to Peter Stock (Elders Lucindale branch manager at the time) if a job came up I would be keen on it. As luck would have it, three months later there was an opening and I have been here ever since," he said.

He says the area has so many pluses from its reliable seasons to the great people to the diversity in livestock enterprises and - unlike many other areas of the state the stock are turned off year round.

"It is the honey hole, you have your autumn lambers, your spring lambers, your autumn and spring calvers, your feeders and traders and the quality of livestock are so good," he said.

Ronnie sells at the Naracoorte weekly cattle market, along with weaner and store sales and is often on the rostrum at stud sales.

"I like to be in control especially when I am selling my clients' livestock," he said.

"It is like driving - you want to be in the driver's seat because it is never the same experience sitting in the passenger seat."

Ronnie says winning in the amphitheatre at Sydney is at the top of his auctioneering career but there have been a couple of Naracoorte weaner sales that have come close - in December 2021 when 2000 steers in Elders run averaged a remarkable $2380 and in December last year where Elders yarded 3300 steers themselves.

In recent months, Ronnie has stepped aside on the rail a bit to help Elders Lucindale agent Nathan McCarthy - who is competing in Sydney this week - perfect his auctioneering skills.

There have been some big highlights in the intervening years since Miles Pfitzner won the title of SA Young Auctioneer, as well as quite a career shift, with him now a sports broadcaster for the Sports Entertainment Network.

Miles grew up at Naracoorte and joined Southern Australian Livestock in 2007 as a trainee accountant.

One day, he was asked to fill in for an auctioneer at a clearance sale, which led to him becoming a trainee stud stock agent.

After working in NSW and Queensland, Miles joined Landmark at Hamilton, Victoria, where he was named the Victorian Auctioneer of the Year in 2011, before moving to Landmark at Bordertown, where he was named the SA Young Auctioneer of the Year.

A few years ago, Miles decided to shift his attention from livestock to sport, which has had him experience commentating on SANFL games to now working as a radio sports presenter and horse racing form analyst for SEN in Melbourne.

Miles says being able to commentate on sports, such as the AFL grand final in 2021, has been a long-term dream he has got a lot of enjoyment out of.

"When the opportunity arose to start doing some radio shows and start calling footy, I jumped at it and then it all happened really quickly," he said.

"The ability to go to large scale sporting events and broadcast them, it's a dream job.

"Getting to work with some of the elite broadcasters and elite former athletes is pretty cool and something I don't take for granted."

Like life as an auctioneer, Miles said being a sports broadcaster requires a lot of hard work and commitment.

"As an agent you spend hours and hours in sale yards across Australia and burning the midnight oil and driving 100,000 kilometres a year," he said.

"Now I find myself watching hours and hours of replays and listening to hours and hours of broadcasting to try and make myself better.

"The more effort you put in and the more work you do, the luckier you get."

READ MORE:

Through being an auctioneer, Miles said he was well-equipped to transition into a broadcasting role.

"Making decisions under pressure in a sharp amount of time as an auctioneer probably gave me the skills now that when I'm calling a game of footy I can say the right thing at the right time," he said.

While being invested in forging a career in broadcast media, Miles still works as on auctioneer on occasions during the year.

"I still do five or six contract auctions Australian wide - the main ones I do are all of Tattykeel's in NSW and I do one in SA at Keringa Angus and then I contract to do one or two others," he said.

Miles was holding the gavel at Keringa, in 2022, when the sale reached an impressive $18,500 average for Angus bulls as well as being the man to sell an Australian White ram at Tattykeel for $240,000 last year.