Photo by Mike Lamb Auctioneer Andrew Swanson, left, announces the rising bids being yelled out by brothers JT and John Weber during the Lincoln County Fair livestock auction Sunday.

TYLER — The large hog took off running once the gate opened inside the Lincoln County livestock arena. It headed straight toward auctioneer Joe Weber.

Weber was busy searching the audience for bids during the 4-H livestock auction. The audience reacted with some “ohhs and ahhs” as the animal grazed Weber from behind. The auctioneer standing at the announcer’s stand above, Andrew Swanson, was announcing the bids. He had fun ribbing his partner down on the floor.

“You OK, Joe?” Swanson asked.

Both auctioneers laughed. And the banter continued back and forth.

“I felt the breeze go by,” Joe Weber said after the auction finished. “Those hogs are like a 250-pound linebacker. If it takes you out on the side of the knee, you are going down. I think there would be a lot of folks who would have enjoyed that.”

Joe Weber explained that the hogs are confined inside the pen.

“So when they get out of that pen, we are going to have some laughs. Kind like going out on Saturday night. Have some fun,” he said. “You will have a cow take a swing at you ever once in awhile. You learn to stand back a little.”

For Joe, and brother JT Weber, and Swanson, it’s all about having fun working at 4-H livestock auctions. Joe Weber has been working livestock auctions since the 1980s.

“Time goes by pretty fast. Thirty years,” he said with a laugh.

Both Webers attended auctioneer school in Iowa to get started. Besides 4-H livestock auctions, Joe Weber helps out with Pheasants Forever banquets.

Both operate farms in the Lake Benton area and supporters of 4-H. Joe Weber said he will have grandchildren involved in 4-H in a couple years.

“Grandpa is going to have to sit in there and bid too. It all goes to a good cause,” he said.

Joe Weber mentions Leroy Van Dyke’s “The Auctioneer” song when asked about talking fast at auctions.

“You actually have to do a live auction to really understand,” he said.

During Sunday’s auction, two of the auctioneers stood in front of each of the two sets of bleachers full of potential bidders. Their job is to look for raised hands or “winks” and yell out the bids. The third auctioneer with the mic yells out the rising price for the animal.

“After awhile it becomes kind of maybe second nature. But it’s funny how different people — there’s some folks they’ll get their hands up, but the next guy he’s got a wink and you better be taking it,” Joe Weber said with a laugh. “There’ll be some guys — you better be watching because it can be all (gives a wink) — because they don’t want nobody else to know they are bidding.”

Joe Weber explained that the 4-H youths face many expenses in feeding the animals and taking them to the county and state fairs. So the money raised in the auction helps with all those expenses.

“It goes along ways to help those kids and their families to participate in the state fair,” he said.