The 2025 Haymaker of the Year grew up on a farm and loved going to auctions with his father. At that time, most were held on Saturdays during the winter so they’d try to get their work done so they could go.  He loved listening to the auctioneer and admired his voice and the speed at which he sold items. 

He attended a two-week auctioneering course in Mason City and to fine-tune his chant, he'd practice out in a field on the farm.   

After he married, he farmed for four years and then moved to Fort Atkinson. The man sold feed, worked on a road construction crew, and he and his brother, ran an auctioneering business.  In the mid-1980s, he added a hay auction, Fort Atkinson Hay, and started auctioneering full time. 

A hay auction was a new kind of thing in the area, but our haymaker saw a need for an auction where farmers could buy and sell hay and straw. The first four years, they didn't make a dime, but then there was a drought in the late 1980s, and they started getting a lot of hay in and prices were high. 

After several moves, they ended up in the Fort Atkinson lumberyard building and as the auction grew, the fellow started buying and selling hay for customers as well.  He did business all over the United States and in Canada and it just kept growing. 

In 2008, he sold the hay auction but kept the general auction company. 

Hard work, honesty, having the ability to get along with people and knowing the price of the item being sold are the qualities that make a good auctioneer, he has said. 

For an auctioneer, the voice is an important tool of the trade.  He describes an auctioneer's chant as singing but with numbers instead of words. He has been auctioneering for over 60 years! 

The 2025 Haymaker has served on the board of directors and as president of the Iowa Auctioneers Association, but he considers one of his greatest achievements, besides marrying Joan, as being elected President of the National Hay Association.  

Please join us in Congratulating Bob Humpal and thanking him for his service and support of the NHA!

The Haymaker of the Year Award was created and sponsored by Kemin Industries in the early 1980′s. Members were asked for nominations at the awards banquet annually.  In the early 1990′s, the NHA Board of Directors created the Haymaker Award Committee to continue the tradition.