GAS — Blaine Lotz, 18, chanted his way to the Kansas Auctioneers Association livestock title on Friday, besting six competitors at the Southeast Kansas Stockyard here.
If that weren’t enough, Lotz three days earlier in Greeley, Colo., came out on top in a quarterfinals round of the World Livestock Auctioneer Championships. Charly Cummings, Yates Center, is the defending world champion.
The twin successes in his first competitions came just eight months after Lotz graduated from Labette County High School in Altamont.
That Lotz chose a career in the auction business came about naturally enough.
“My grandfather was a livestock auctioneer, my mom is one and Dad is a livestock order buyer,” said the 18-year-old from Leon.
Lotz earned his auctioneer’s certification from Western College of Auctioneering in Billings, Mont., in 2009 at age 15. Before turning 16, he cried his first livestock auction. Now he courts bidders each week at the sale barn in Fredonia and helps Brian Little, the 2011 Kansas champion, with a weekly livestock auction in Coffeyville.
He is a freshman at Labette County Community College in Parsons.
“I want to have a backup plan, although I have no plans to get away from livestock sales,” he said.
Lotz has a rich bass voice and his chant is
melodious and rhythmic. He had toes tapping during the stint selling cattle Friday in the Gas arena.
“When I was learning to auction, I listened to a lot of Elvis tapes,” he said, to the point “where I try to kind of sing while I’m selling. Granddad was rhythmic, as is Mom, and that was my goal from the start, to have rhythm.”
He convinced three judges, all long-time veterans of the business, his delivery and demeanor were the best of seven in the Kansas championships.
Judges — Iolan Leon Thompson, Brody Peak, Emporia, and David Patton, Vienna, Mo. — scored contestants on presentation, clarity of chant and voice quality, bid-catching, execution of sale and whether they would hire the auctioneer.
RUSSELE SLEEP, Bedford, Iowa, was second in the competition, followed by Byron Bina, Herington, Danny Deters, Holton, and Mike Bailey, Jennings.
Lotz received $500 and a trophy belt buckle. The other four received cash prizes. Finishing out of the money were Andrew K. Findlay, Topeka, and Brian Sosebee, Coffeyville.
Sleep, ninth in the world championships last year, has auctioned livestock for eight years. He works SEK Stockyard auctions most Fridays and also helps with Saturday sales in Fort Scott, driving 230 miles from his home farm in Iowa to Gas.
