After winning a couple major livestock auctioneer championships more than 15 years ago, Corey Lawrence decided to retire.
His first time out, Lawrence won the Canadian Livestock Market auctioneer championship and was reserve champion at the Calgary Stampede international in 2000 when he was 27.
“I said I was done with competition.”
However, his friend and business partner Chance Martin, who sits on the Stampede auctioneer committee, convinced him to re-enter the competition this year.
It proved to be the right decision because he was named international livestock auctioneer grand champion at the Stampede event held July 15-16.
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Lawrence is taking home $5,000 and a belt buckle and earned a berth at the world livestock auctioneer championship in Billings, Montana, next June.
Outside of competition, Lawrence works at wholesale car sales, purebred cattle sales and livestock sales.
In 2015, he went into partnership with Martin and Jeff Fritz and took over the Thorsby Stockyards. They refurbished it and sold about 50,000 head in the first year.
“We are independently owned and we are very proud of that,” he said.
He also farms, and he and his wife, Tracy, have three daughters, Jorgia, 16, Jaiden, 12, and Jenna, nine.
Reserve champion was Trev Moravec of David City, Nebraska, who was awarded $1,000.
Rookie of the year was Ronnie-Aaron Dix of Naracoote, Australia.
