Harley Jackson is shown above working during the 2022 Union County Junior Fair Livestock sale. Jackson announced during the sale that this year’s auction would be he last at the Union County Fair.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Chad Williamson)
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With every showman that enters the ring at the Union County Fair Livestock Sale, Auctioneer Harley Jackson can relate to them.
When one showman entered the ring Saturday with his hand wrapped in green tape, Jackson asked what happened.
The boy told him that his dairy feeder started to get away from him and he didn’t let go of the lead quickly enough.
As it turns out, Jackson had the same issue as a child with a steer.
“I asked my dad what he was yelling the whole time and he said, ‘Let go!’” Jackson told the audience with a laugh.
As buyers bid on the animals for sale, it quickly becomes apparent that it’s not just decades’ worth of auctioneering that Jackson brings to the livestock sale.
“It’s firsthand for me,” Jackson said.
After 43 straight Saturdays at the Union County Fair Livestock Sale – whether showing animals, working the ring, or leading the sale – Jackson announced that the 2022 sale would be his last at the helm.
On Saturday, Jackson tipped his hat in gratitude to a round of applause after he handed the microphone to his son to close the sale.
“I look back and I go, ‘43 years – wow,’” Jackson said. “I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around it.”
Before Saturday’s sale, Jackson told the crowd that he first showed at the Union County Fair in 1979 – long enough ago, he said, that the barn still had a dirt floor.
“I’ve been telling people all that and they said, ‘I don’t remember that Harley,’ and I said, ‘Man, I do,’” Jackson said.
He showed hogs for 10 years, along with steer during his final four years of 4-H.
“4-H is really, really important to me,” Jackson said. “It gave me a project I had to see through.”
Jackson said his hogs instilled responsibility, as he learned from the time he was 9 years old that he had to feed and give water to his hog every morning.
Raising steer taught him “longevity” because he had to remain committed to caring for the animal from October until July of the next year.
Jackson carried the lessons he learned in 4-H into his future endeavors, which immediately revolved around auctioneering.
The year after he finished showing animals, 1989, he started as a ringman at the Union County Fair Livestock Sale, which he continued to do for several years.
Ultimately, in the early 2000s, he took over auctioneering the whole sale.
His son, Hal, followed a similar route.
Jackson said his son showed animals for 10 years before he worked as a ringman for three years. Hal joined his father in auctioneering the sale six years ago.
“It’s indescribable, honestly,” Jackson said of his son’s journey. “It makes me want to stick my chest out a little bit and say, ‘Boy, oh, boy, that’s my son.’”
Jackson said seeing his son’s success, along with that of other young auctioneers he works with, made it “a little bit easier” to hand over the reins.
“I want younger auctioneers to get the same opportunity I got, and that’s really what was behind my decision (to step away from the livestock sale),” Jackson said.
Watching his son sell the livestock sale in recent years is part of what led Jackson to feel that now is the right time to step away.
In his early years auctioneering at the fair, Jackson said he not only related to the children showing their animals, but knew them and their families by name. Now, he said Hal knows “the whole crowd.”
Jackson said it is “very, very humbling” to feel so confident in who will take over the sale.
“I want to be able to tell them, have fun with it just like I did,” he said.
Jackson emphasized that he will still have his auction business in Union County.
But, stepping away from the livestock sale will allow Hal to take on more responsibility while Jackson is “a little more hands on with our public sales.”
Jackson also noted that his granddaughter, who is three, will likely be showing at the Union County Livestock Sale in six years.
He said that means he only has six summers to check some places, like Cheyenne, Wyoming, off of his travel bucket list.
While his days behind the microphone at the livestock sale have come to a close, Jackson said he is thankful to every buyer and fair board member that allowed the dream he had since he was 9 years old to come true.
“I remember saying, ‘I want to sell that sale one day,’ and I got to do it,” Jackson said before the 2022 Livestock Sale began.