Mr Smith, 24, of Elders Gundagai says now is a great time to be in the livestock industry and he is looking forward to the learning experience at Sydney.

In the lead up to the young auctioneers competition he will test his skills at Cooma, Tumut and Omeo and is also hoping to sell at Wagga.

"Wagga is a very good place to learn how to sell, going into Sydney, because it has a rostrum and a ring selling centre ... there are not a lot of places like Wagga," he said.

Wagga runs differently to a lot of other major selling centres which have a catwalk set up. The ring selling centre is a closer representation of how the Sydney Royal Easter Show auctioneers competition plays out.

"There are also people who I look up to in the industry (that I can watch)," Mr Smith said.

"I like listening to James Tierney sell and Joe Wilks too ... they give you that drive to go hard and do better," he said.

Both Mr Tierney, of Riverina Livestock Agents, and Joe Wilks, Elders Wagga, have achieved success in the young auctioneers competition at Sydney Royal Easter Show.

When Mr Smith competes in Sydney on April 4 it will be his second year in the young auctioneers event.

"I was in it last year and was happy with how I went, it was a tough field," he said. Mr Smith said confidence was often a trademark for livestock agents but it doesn't necessarily come easy.

This year he's also ready for some "excessive prices" given what is happening in the market.

And those high prices have been close to home too. Mr Smith told the story about how on Monday, after Wagga cattle sale, he relayed some prices of 454c/kg for 220 kilogram restocker steers back to his client.

"This makes the job rewarding," he said.

RELATED: