Doug Jaggers Auctioneers for the Last Time
By Heidi Beguin
On Wednesday afternoon, August 7, there was a sale at Sheridan Livestock Auction Company in Rushville. At first glance it seemed like any other sale, but this one was special. This would be the last time Doug Jaggers would sit in the oh so familiar auctioneer’s seat. Jaggers would auctioneer for the last time before retiring the chant he had perfected so well that had earned him the World Livestock Auctioneer Champion in years past.
Jaggers, who attended Hay Springs High School and played quarterback next to Dave Glenn as halfback, has apparently always tried to excel in whatever he was involved in. Glenn remembers, “He graduated with our class, although he's a year younger.”
Dave Tiensvold played against him in football, as a member of the Rushville team, “Doug was a heck of a quarterback.” Several years ago, Tiensvold remembers looking for a golf partner, and Doug was too so they got together and have been partners ever since. “Doug's a lot better golfer than I am. I gave him many opportunities to find a different partner because I got to where I reached a peak. But he still golfs with me and I appreciate that.”
Jaggers and Glenn went to college for a while. “We didn’t graduate but we had a lot of fun,” Glenn chuckles. After moving to Rushville, Doug went to work for his dad at the sale barn for $1.60 an hour, eventually becoming his dad’s partner.
Doug went to auctioneering school in 1972. He found a mentor in Jack Churchill and tape recorded his autioneer chant. His son Jeff remembers, “Dad was always practicing his chant while driving down the road and my brother Mike and I would try to mimic him. We would end up laughing and getting tongue-tied. I thought I might try to follow in his footsteps, but eventually and wisely decided to choose a different career path, as I knew I would never be the autioneer he has been.”
Dan Otte started at Sheridan Livestock in 1980 and worked for Bob and Doug. The Jaggers pair sold the barn to the Diercks family in the early 80’s, but shortly afterwards Otte bought the sale barn with a partner and Doug auctioneered for them. It wasn’t long before Doug bought back in as a partner for several years.
In 1981, Jaggers entered the World Livestock Auctioneer contest in St. Paul, Minn. with 101 other contestants. He walked away with the title. The Rushville Chamber of Commerce held a dinner in his honor and his father, who was always a quiet man, was asked if he had any words to say. After hesitating he decided he did. “No, well, yeah, I do. His mother and I named him. Then, we came up with a few other names for him as he was growing up. But I guess, he’s now made a name for himself.”
Dan remembers he and Doug splitting up in 2000. “May 1st of 2000, Doug sold his shares. I call it a divorce. But it was a good divorce, I mean, it wasn't on bad terms, obviously. We had real estate to split up, cows to split up, leases to split up, this business to split up.”
After their amicable divorce, Jaggers came back. Otte remembers, “I asked him several times to come back but he never would commit. Finally I said, Doug, I'm not going to ask you one more time. Do you want to come help me? He said he didn’t know. I said, well, I'll never ask you again but if you want to do this, meet me here at 9 o'clock in the morning. And he showed up.” The two have been working together ever since.
Tiensvold explains why Doug is such a good auctioneer, “I've heard a few auctioneers, not a great many, but Doug's the clearest auctioneer I've ever heard. You can understand him and he'll sell for you. If your cattle are in a ring, he's selling for you.”
Donna Dolezal, long time employee at SLAC, echoes that statement. ”Doug’s on the fourth generation of selling just for my family. I'm proud that he has. I'm proud that he's been the one to sell our cattle.”
“Doug knows cattle,” this statement was repeated by most everyone who knows him. But Dolezal says, “Anybody can auction. But you have to know the market. You have to know the stock. You have to know your buyers. You have to know your customers.”
“And there's a lot of stuff that goes on up in that block that nobody knows. It's a huge responsibility. That is—all the people sitting out there watching, that is their livelihood. And that's on your shoulders that day. Doug's very professional. He's very respected. Myself, I have a lot of respect for him.”
She also remembers all the times he’s helped her over the years. “He's taught me a lot. He knows a lot. He and his dad, they knew all the rules and how it was to be. We have packers and stockyards and we have to follow the rules. A lot of regulation. And they both knew the rules inside and out. Even after Doug quit, I would call and say, hey, this came up, I've never had this, what would you do? And then he would go, I'll be out. And then here he'd come.”
Mike Jaggers remembers that his dad had an incredible work ethic and way of looking at things, “which I believe is what made him so successful as an auctioneer and cattleman. Many people still say that he’s the best there ever was.
Something I always remember him saying from a very young age was that no matter what you do, try your best and be the best at it. It didn’t matter if it was sports, work, volunteering, grilling, or at an event or family gathering. The goal was to “win” or be the best at whatever we were doing. Not many can say that but with his auctioneering, he did it as a World Champion. It’s something that has stuck with me my entire life and something I have been proud to pass on to my kids as well. I speak for my entire family and am happy and proud to say that as good of an auctioneer and cattleman he was, he is an even better dad and grandpa. Hopefully, and selfishly, we will now be able to enjoy more of that for many years to come.”
Doug Jaggers began his final role as auctioneer by saying how much his wife Kathy has done throughout the years, over 55 years in April, and how much he appreciates her and their boys Jeff and Mike, and their families.
As Dan and Doug, sitting side by side, are wiping away tears, as are many of the people present that day, he also mentions the entire crew at Sheridan Livestock and that he believes Wyatt Schaack will be a great auctioneer for the sale barn.
Jaggers then extends his hand to Otte and says, “I’d like to thank Dan Otte. One thing about Dan, when he shakes your hand he wants to make sure that you feel it for a couple days. During all the years we’ve worked together, I don’t think we’ve ever had a cross word between us. We might’ve had a couple minor disagreements now and then, but not much. One of them was that Dan always thought he paid me too much and I never thought he paid me enough. He did inform me that he was having this for me today and that I had to sell a few cattle, and it was for free, he said. So bring on some stock, let’s sell some cattle.”
Dave Glenn adds, “We've just always known that he was the best there was. You could ask anybody that bought cows or sold cattle. He just didn't make very many mistakes. He knew cattle and he knew people, too. So that's what he did.”
Doug Jaggers, next to Dan Otte, and the crew he’s worked with for years, points to a bidder at his last livestock auction at Sheridan Livestock Auction Company in Rushville, Nebraska. Photo by Heidi Beguin