The smoke drifted hazily up to the rafters, and the cadence of the auctioneer's voice sounded just like I remembered. The cattle in the ring, a nice set of black steer calves, sold just under a dollar, and I smiled. The market was up, the buyers were in the seats - it was gonna be fun.

I haven't been to a livestock auction in years. I used to go with my dad when I was growing up. We didn't go that often - there was too much work to get done, but when he was looking for replacement heifers or selling the cull cows, we'd hay and feed and then head to the sale. Oddly enough, I don't ever remember looking around and wondering why there weren't many other girls there, especially young ones as I was. Everybody knew dad and I just thought that's where I was supposed to be.

The best sales to go to, of course, were the yearling sales. There's an energy surrounding yearling sales that doesn't exist at a cow sale. Maybe it's because all the feedlot buyers are there. Maybe it's because a year of hard work and hard times are sitting in the ring. Maybe it's because there's just something about seeing a nice set of red steers...or black, white or yellow...milling about in the ring. Everyone in the crowd kind of leans forward when one of those nice sets of calves come through the gates. There is an appreciation for good beef at a livestock auction that doesn't exist outside of this world.

The thing is, the cattle business can feel awfully lonely. If it's not calving struggles, it's shortage of feed, bad weather or slow market prices. And all of those lead to the ultimate problem of the banker knocking on the door wanting his money. Pretty soon, it feels like you're the only one facing these problems. Cubicle workers don't have to fight mud or lie awake at night wondering if they should keep the steers on feed for another two weeks in hopes of the market improving, and sometimes the overwhelming task of trying to beat the odds gets pretty heavy.

Popping into the sale last week reminded me what I liked so much about the livestock auction. It's a culture. It's a support group - in an informal, unspoken way. Just looking around, you realize you're not in this business alone, and sometimes, that's all it takes to help you jump out of bed ready to face another day.