On the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, a group of twenty-five or so high school students will walk into the offices of Steffes Auctioneers in West Fargo carrying something most of them have never held before: not a bidder number or a gavel, but an ambition to stand at the front of a room and make strangers want things. They'll be the first cohort of the North Dakota Auctioneers Association's inaugural Fall Bid-Calling Camp, a one-day immersion in the fast, rhythmic, deeply agricultural American art of auctioneering, designed specifically for members of North Dakota FFA.
The day will run from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m., with the students training shoulder-to-shoulder with professional auctioneers from the North Dakota Auctioneers Association, plus a visiting instructor, Justin Kennedy of the Oklahoma Auction School. The curriculum is both practical and performative: chant building, ring work, item description, stage presence, public speaking, and the unglamorous but essential business mechanics of making a living in the auction world. The first 25 students to register get in free; anyone beyond that pays a modest $75 fee to help cover costs. The association is picking up the tab for meals, contest items, and awards, so no FFA chapter's budget has to take a hit.
Then, at 3:45 p.m., the real test begins. The students will walk from the training floor to the Red River Farm Network Building at the Big Iron Farm & Construction Show, where they'll step up to a live microphone and call bids in front of a public audience. It's the kind of moment that separates the curious from the committed, and it's entirely by design. "This camp gives kids a real, hands-on look at a profession most of them have never considered — and a lot of them are naturals," said Ben Stiegelmeier, who is coordinating the partnership for the association. "We want every FFA member in the state who's curious about auctioneering to have a shot at trying it."
The Fall Bid-Calling Camp is just the first stage of a three-part pathway that the North Dakota Auctioneers Association and North Dakota FFA have built together. Students who catch the bug and continue through the program will get a shot at a preliminary state contest during the association's 75th anniversary convention in Fargo on Feb. 5-7, 2027. The top five to ten contestants from that prelim will advance to the grand finale: the North Dakota State FFA Bid-Calling Championship, to be held at the 2027 State FFA Convention next June. The winner of that event will earn a bit of history as the first-ever state champion of this new discipline.
The setting for the camp is itself steeped in the auction tradition. Steffes Auctioneers — the company now known as Steffes Group — was founded in 1960 by Bob Steffes, who started out selling farm equipment and livestock. Over six decades, the firm grew from a local outfit into a regional powerhouse handling land, equipment, and real estate auctions across the Midwest and Rocky Mountain region, eventually pioneering online bidding from its headquarters at 2000 Main Ave. E. in West Fargo. To hold the first camp there is a deliberate gesture, a kind of passing of the chant from the old guard of North Dakota auctioneering to the next generation.
And there's a deeper layer to the story. The Big Iron Farm Show, where the contest will take place, has its own roots in the region's agricultural identity. It began in 1980 in Casselton, North Dakota, as a showcase for the latest innovations in heavy machinery — the "Big Iron" of the title — before moving to the Red River Valley Fairgrounds in West Fargo the following year. Today it bills itself as the largest farm show in the upper Midwest, and the Red River Farm Network has been broadcasting live from it since 2008. The network itself, founded in 1995 by three Grand Forks farm broadcasters, has made the show a centerpiece of its annual coverage. For a student standing at the RRFN building's mic, the history is palpable: they're not just calling bids in an empty practice hall, but in the middle of one of the most important agricultural gatherings in the northern Plains.
This is not the first time FFA has dabbled in auctioneering. In recent years, state associations from South Carolina to Oklahoma have launched similar career development events, recognizing that the auction block is a legitimate, often lucrative career track that draws on the same skills that FFA already cultivates: public speaking, quick thinking, reading a crowd, and knowing the value of things. But North Dakota's program stands out for its deliberate, laddered structure — a free introductory camp, a statewide preliminary, and a championship that will crown the state's first student bid-calling champion.
The camp is open to any participating North Dakota FFA member, and the association has been encouraging agriculture teachers, advisers, parents, and grandparents to spread the word. For a generation raised on screens and algorithms, there's something almost anachronistic about the auctioneer's chant — a verbal instrument that predates recorded sound, built on rhythm, repetition, and sheer force of personality. Yet it may be exactly the kind of skill that feels fresh to young people looking for a career with no cubicle attached.
By the end of that September afternoon, a handful of students will discover they have a natural gift for it. A few more will decide it's worth pursuing. And one of them, down the line, will stand at the State FFA Convention and call the winning bid that makes them the first North Dakota state champion in this newborn tradition. It all starts with a free seat at a camp, a patient instructor, and a room full of teenagers willing to make fools of themselves for the love of a good chant.