It's a bountiful life: Sold!
March/April 2022 California Bountiful magazine
Young livestock auctioneer bids on a promising career
Story by Linda DuBois
Photos by Fred Greaves
Anyone who wants to know how auctioneers can talk in that lightning-fast, rhythmic monotone and still be understood can ask 20-year-old Travis Moniz of Princeton. After all, he's learned the skill (called a "chant") twice: once as a young boy and again as a teen at the Western College of Auctioneering in Bozeman, Montana. He attended the school on three scholarships, including $500 from the Colusa County Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers. He is now busy launching his career.
What do you like about auctioneering? I love public speaking. I love getting out and meeting new people, and I think this is a good way to do that. And I just enjoy it. There's a thrill in it that's hard to explain. Now, I sell at Orland Livestock Commission Yard three days a week most of the time. If I can make auctioneering and announcing rodeos and raising show cattle my career, then that's the road I want to go down.
When did you get started? I've been selling since I was 9 years old. My dad was an auctioneer and he graduated from the same school in 2002. He taught me some things and I started practicing. Then I got on YouTube, and I watched the world champion auctioneers and I learned stuff from them. When I went to auctioneer school in 2019, it was harder for me because all the other students had never sold before—but I had a chant developed already. So, they had to break down my chant and I had to start from scratch. But my chant is a million times better than what it was before.
What all did you learn in auctioneer school? It's a very intense nine-day program that covers every topic of auctioneering. Each day you cover something different. So, like the first day we went over basic auctioneering and did all the tongue twisters. And then we went into the farm and ranch equipment—tractors and stuff like that. So, we covered benefit auctions and livestock auctions and farm auctions. And, what I liked about each instructor was different, and I could pick up little pieces from each of them and put that towards my chants.
How do you practice? It helps with just regular speech therapy, but mainly you practice with tongue twisters. So, you could say, "Thousands and thousands of thundering sounds." What the tongue twisters do is they help you articulate your words and when you use filler words in your chant, it makes your numbers pop. So, you can use a tongue twister that has a lot of B's in it and it makes you really say the B. So, like when you're saying "bid" in your chant, it'll sound more crisp and more clear. And it teaches your tongue how to move that fast.
How did you get the YF&R scholarship? I was in school one day and we were going over the list of scholarships that were available and our counselor … asked if I'd be interested in it. And so, I filled out the application and I sent it in and, by golly, I got it! … So, it actually helped push me to go to auctioneer school.
We hear you do a lot of volunteer work. Yes, ma'am. I do a lot of benefit auctions on weekends. I used to volunteer every sale I did and I wouldn't even ask to get paid because I just enjoyed doing it so much. I'm also the national vice president for the South Devon Association junior board. I had a bunch of people ask me if I wouldn't mind being the Maxwell 4-H beef group advisor. So, I am taking on that role this year. I think I'm the youngest advisor that they've ever had. I just like giving back to the community and helping the kids. That's my No. 1 goal in life is to make kids' futures great. They're the future of our industry in agriculture and in everything.
What do you do when you're not volunteering or auctioneering? My parents and I have a registered cow-calf operation here in Princeton. We run 25 head of Simmental and South Devon cows, a few Angus as well. And we go show cattle all over the nation. I've shown in California, Oregon, Montana, Kansas, Iowa, Denver and Minnesota. I used to play basketball in high school and I like to dance a little bit. I also sing a little bit as well, but cows take up most of my time.
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