Elders Naracoorte agent Josh Reeves has made the most of his home saleyard advantage to win the state's Young Auctioneers competition at the Naracoorte Regional Livestock Exchange.
Last year the 23-year old had a clear path to the national finals at the 2019 Sydney Royal Easter Show as the only SA entrant.
But this year he earned his way back to the Sydney auditorium in style with his clear voice and strong market values.
Mr Reeves said it was a "huge honour" to get his name on the Australian Livestock & Property Agents' state shield at the Naracoorte prime cattle sale, with the talented field of five entrants.
He began auctioneering at Wagga Wagga., NSW, as a trainee several years ago and has honed his craft, under the guidance of Elders Naracoorte branch manager Tom Dennis, selling at Tuesday's weekly prime sales and the monthly store cattle sale for the past 18 months.
"One of the greatest privileges you can have as an agent is standing over your clients stock and marketing them to the best of your ability and just getting the maximum result for the client," Mr Reeves said.
"The battle between buyer and auctioneer is something that is fierce most weeks, especially with the prices at the moment."
Runner-up was fellow Elders agent Wade Broadstock from Bordertown, who will also represent SA in Sydney next April.
The 24-year-old also got his start whilst an Elders trainee at Bendigo about three years ago.
He has been based with Elders at Bordertown for 18 months and been selling the lambs and sheep at the weekly Horsham, Vic, market for the past six months.
"It was a bit of surprise but after last year missing out on the competition when I broke my leg I was keen to enter and am really excited for Sydney," he said.
The judges were Scott Creek, Creek Livestock, Mount Gambier; Jono Spence, Spence Dix & Co, Keith and Scott Miller, Miller Whan & John, Mount Gambier.
The previous day, eleven agents attended ALPA's school.
ALPA southern regional manager Liz Summerville said it was also a chance for some last minute practice for the entrants, learning off several experienced auctioneers.
"With that intense training you could see the benefits, it was just great to see the guys on the rail and where they had been a come from the previous day," she said.
The other entrants in the 2019 competition were Landmark Burra's Alistair Keller, Thomas DeGaris & Clarkson's Hayden Lambert and Landmark Naracoorte's Daniel Kriticos.
