Meet the 17-year-old auctioneer who is already running the ring at livestock market in Yorkshire

“I’ve always loved coming to auction markets. This is where my dad sells his sheep from our farm at Kirby Mills near Kirkbymoorside. I have always wanted to be an auctioneer. It has been my ambition from the get-go.

“I started selling in the middle of August last year, with being a trainee auctioneer having come about since a year last May.

“I’d been at Bishop Burton College on a one-year course and this came about after having seen that there were trainee auctioneer opportunities elsewhere and asking here whether there was an opening.

“There are not many others that will have had the incredible opportunity that Thirsk have given me. I started on the monthly Saturday sale. In June last year I clerked for Tony (Thompson) and he let me sell rabbits and ferrets.

“The sheep auctioneer here, Emma Coupland, then was sent a video of me selling and the following Thursday after seeing it she let me sell half the ewes. After that I sold the lot of them for a two-week period and then ever since I’ve sold the fat ewes week-in week-out.

Ben has his head set firmly on his shoulders and is learning his trade all the time. He is grateful for all the support he has received from Tony, Emma and all of the team at Thirsk, including the buyers and sellers. He recalls his first time selling sheep with Emma.

“Before I started selling the sheep I’d walked around the pens with Emma and one of the buyers and she said what everything was worth, gave me a guideline and then halfway through the sale of the fat ewes she just said ‘Right, Ben’s going to have a go …’ It was all a bit of a blur that first time but I loved it.

“When I started I spoke with other auctioneers who all said you’re working with the buyers, don’t fall out with them.

“You’ve got to work together with everyone and make sure you find a balance where each buyer and seller is happy, because at the end of the day you wouldn’t have the market without the buyers or the market without the sellers.

“Yes, you are working for the farmer, don’t get me wrong, but you’ve got to work with the buyers and not fall out.

“I talk with buyers after we finish selling. I don’t get much chance before we start, but after we finish selling you have a bit of a chat and laugh with them, ask what they think, try to get bit of feedback on how they feel it has gone.

The Christmas Primestock Show & Sale is always a special time for livestock markets and Thirsk, in common with a number of other marts, runs its annual show and sale over two days starting the night before with the show, with tradestands, a bar, food and music.

Ben says it’s a great social time as well as being a highlight in the mart’s calendar and that he’s very much looking forward to selling the ewes and particularly selling the champion pen of ewes.

“I’ll be selling all the ewes and all of the prizewinners. I did it last year too, it wasn’t massive then, but because it’s my part of what I do every week at the mart I’ve tried to build it up a bit more this year.

“It’s always prestigious winning anything at a mart show and sale, and it is just as prestigious for me to sell the champion pens.

“It’s a real team effort here. We all work together. There’s myself, Emma and Tony on the selling side and we all chip in and do our bit of organising.

“There’s Gill and Sarah in the office, and Craig (Marwood) who’s the site manager. Tony deals with all the cattle. Emma deals with the fat lambs every Thursday.

Having sold ewes in the fatstock market for a year Ben is now earning his spurs in selling in the Tuesday stores market. He clearly knows his stuff.

“I’ve got involved at a good time. I’d say the fat ewes price for the past half a year or so, has seen a good trade all around.

“There’s a slight dip in the price at the minute, but it has been a good steady trade all the way through.

“I’m not saying I’ve had it easy as there are always some very hard weeks, but overall while I’ve been selling, we have had a good ringside of buyers, plenty of people around and competitive bids for all classes of ewes.

“The number of buyers varies from week to week but usually it is around six to eight buyers that can be buying on many accounts.

“We get great local butchers such as Frank’s Family Butchers in Thirsk for the fat lambs, while the buyers for the fat ewes are more the wholesalers.

“I’m now really enjoying selling store lambs on a Tuesday. I’m trying to build both of my sheep lines.

Ben says that working alongside Emma, both in the ring and in their combined determination to keep growing the sheep numbers at the mart is a real adrenaline rush.

“On a regular Thursday sale we have a similar amount of buyers for both ewes and lambs, and I work together with Emma on making sure we have a regular supply for our buyers.

“I ring around for people to bring their ewes and both of us talk together about which buyers are coming.

“I know that Emma has far more contacts than me, but I’m working on that.

“Emma has given me opportunities that I would never have been able to dream of anywhere else and has given me the freedom to run my own side with the ewes.

Ben has been a member of Kirkbymoorside YFC since he was 12-13 years old and tells of his love of stockjudging.

“I do as much as I can, which always helps here. I’ve done well at district level and also here at Thirsk in the Yorkshire Federation and up at Northern Area at Darlington.