Auctioneer

Auctioneer

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Wherever there are cattle for sale, there is the sound of the auctioneer. For 37 years, Lonnie Rudd has sung into the mike in auction barns across the Northwest. It's a job that requires rhythm. “You kind of have to have a rhythm and a beat. I either do that with my foot shaking or my hand tapping.” He has to know his bidder. “Their hands, their face. I can generally tell when someone is going to bid before they know they’re going to bid because you can see by their body gestures that they are interested.” Rudd uses his hands to mentally keep track of the live bidding. “When I point at you, you know that I am pointing and when I have my bid, the guy that actually has the live bid, I don’t know if you have ever noticed that but I will point at that guy so that I can keep things straight because sometimes it gets pretty wild and furious.” Rudd and newcomer Zach Zunstein share the mic at Treasure Valley Livestock in Caldwell, Idaho and much like Rudd, Zunstein uses his hands to direct the orchestra of the sale ring. Rudd said the live auction business is now used in several arenas. “Years ago, your livestock auctioneer, he would do farm sales, he would do household auctions, he would do any auction that came around. Now it’s more specialized. Either you are a farm sale auctioneer or you’re a household auctioneer, a car auctioneer. And now there is getting to be a lot more property sold by auction.” And the favorite bark of the auctioneer
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