Calgary (Rural Roots Canada) — Barco Van Niekerk journeyed to Canada and the Calgary Stampede to compete in the International Livestock Auctioneer Championships after he won the Youth Livestock Auctioneer Championships of South Africa.

He says he’s only got his start in 2014.

“I was a livestock marketer in South Africa and I took an opportunity one day to try auctioneering and I liked it, so I went to auctioneering school in South Africa and then started doing it commercially about 3-years ago,” says Van Niekerk.

RELATED ARTICLES: Multilingual auctioneering: South Africans impress and learn during Canadian trip

Van Niekerk says they auction in both English and Africanse and they have a slightly different style.

“We sell with the bid that we have, not the bid that we want like here in Canada and the U.S. and we also sell price per head and not price per pound, so it’s fairly different.”

He says he changed up his chant a little bit for the Calgary Stampede.

“I sold in my style with the bid that I have, but I sold in dollar per pound and so I did it in the U.S. way.”

He says this trip has allowed him to meet a lot of really nice people and see some great things.

“We’ve been to a small town west of Calgary, Drumheller, we went west to Banff and Lake Louise adn Calgary the city itself we’ve really enjoyed it we’ve been here about 10-days.”