Stoddard County: A great place to learn a trade

Kenny Carney, 71, has been in the auctioneering business for the past 50 years.

He began his career with guidance from his uncle and a local veterinarian who had experience auctioneering.

Eventually, he began to meet more auctioneers and found a position selling livestock at the Beck and McCord Auction Co. in Sikeston, Missouri, and the rest is history.

Throughout the early years, Carney says he relied on several mentors to help him develop his skills and progress to become a better auctioneer.

"When you're young, you need somebody that's older to guide you a little bit, and I had that," he says.

Auctioneer Kenny Carney displays a piece of equipment to be put up at an upcoming auction.

Throughout his career, Carney has worked in Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee, and at several different auction companies, including the Fruitland Livestock Auction and the Jacob Goodin Auction Co. in Bloomfield, Missouri, where he still helps set up and conduct farm sales today.

"When you've been at it that long, I enjoy it, I enjoy the people that you get to meet and you get to look everybody in the eye," Carney says. "You have to enjoy what you do, and I do that."

With a family involved in the cattle business during the Great Depression and since, Carney has been around livestock and auctioneering nearly his entire life, and he has no plans of giving that up any time soon.

"As long as I feel good and my health's good and I enjoy it, I'll just keep going on," he says.