A Peek into a Day at the Sale Barn

Whew! I survived that first day at the sale barn...barely. Land Sakes!! My head is swimming. I don't imagine many of you have had any experience with sales barns and auctioneers, but my brain is on overload.

Leslie, if you read this - I thought of you. :) Did you hear my cries of HELP!? :) There were a few "Lord, have mercies and good gravies mixed in.

They put me in the ring, which means I sit with  the auctioneer on one side and a very nice coworker on the other, who fixes all of my mistakes, enters the weight, and lets the people in the back know which pen to sort things into and sends all the information to the office.

The other very sweet and extraordinarily patient lady sat behind me and walked me through the day. My sincerest apologies to both of them. They deserve a raise for having to put up with me.

My job is to enter the tag numbers (there are 1-5 tags per lot), the codes for what is being sold, number of hd being sold, the code for each buyer, and all pertinent information relating to said buyer. As well as any anomalies such as bobtails  or knots. There are about 50 different codes and combinations thereof for what is being sold and I have to look at what comes into the pen and designate a code for each. Not always easy when they come flying into the pen on the fight, flinging dirt and cow crud into your face and down your shirt. That part I can handle. :)

Some don't have tags and I have to give one of the owners a hand signal that it needs a tag and he then shows me a tag that I enter as he slaps it on the critter as it flies out of the ring onto the scale. And they don't always sell them one at a time. Some are sold in lots. There were 29 in one lot. No problem if they then sell them that way, but often, they will decide to split the lots and then I just want to cry.

And my eyes! I found out that bifocals are in my future if they still want me to work there. :( I have reading glasses, but I don't need them for anything else and with this job, I don't need them to read the tags or see what is in the pens, but I  darn sure need them to enter things into the computer. That means I took my glasses off approximately 1000 times on Monday between 9 and 2:30. I would need them to look up the codes too, but there isn't time to do that. You just need to know the codes.

Remember, this is an auction and they run the cattle through at warped speed. You're lucky if you get 20 seconds to document what needs to be documented and my old 50-yr old mind just does not function like that anymore. I'm not sure that it ever did.

I adore the people I work with, but I felt as if I had worked on Wall Street by the end of the day. It might be a misconception, since the only thing I know about working on Wall Street is from a movie or two, but you don't see many 50 yr olds on Wall Street, and I'm pretty laid back. Not sure that's a good thing in this situation.

I could not turn my brain off all night. I actually liked the work, but good gravy, the speed just threw me for a loop. They sold 1000 hd in 5 1/2 hrs. The ladies that are training me have been working there for 20 years so they have it down to a T. They even have time to visit. Shoot. I didn't even have time to breathe. I drink a lot of water throughout the day, but not on Mondays because there isn't time to go to the bathroom. I stayed so busy that I kind of forgot that I had to go. LOL.

I sure hope the good Lord doesn't mind spending His Monday's at the sale barn, because heaven knows I need Him to be there! And don't ask me who else was there because I could not tell you, but if you happen to be a red mottled face heifer, I'm your gal... because I know your code! :)