$20,000 bid, tears and a special grandpa mark VC Fair's junior livestock auction

What's $16 multiplied by 1,294 pounds?

Raul Reyes knows. The 19-year-old from Carpinteria sold his nearly 1,300-pound grand champion steer for the answer to that math problem — $20,704 — at the Ventura County Fair 's junior livestock auction on Friday.

The steer is named Joker but that price isn't a wisecrack. It's a way for Reyes to get ahead of his college bills. He leaves Tuesday for Oklahoma State University where he'll work toward his goal of becoming a veterinarian.

He smiled in front of Joker's stall, contemplating the payoff for his hard work from winning bidder Cole Ranch. All of it will go to school. Well, nearly all of it.

"Maybe, I'll get a little something for me," he said.

The annual auction generates money for kids who raise rabbits, pigs, goats, steers and other animals. It packed nearly every inch of the fairgrounds' Clark Pavilion on Friday, just two days before the fair's 12-day run comes to a close. Some in the audience sipped beers. Others wheeled their kids in two-seated strollers.

Youths, most in groups like 4H, FFA and Grange, led their livestock to center stage as David Macedo gathered bids in a patter as fast as a SpaceX rocket. During one brief lull, the 63-year-old auctioneer from Tulare instructed a seller to flip his steer around.

"Now we'll sell the other side," he joked. Macedo was honored Friday because he's retiring from the Ventura County Fair after 40 years of auctioning.

But the focus was on the kids and the video screen that kept an unofficial tally of winning bids. Just after 1 p.m. Friday, it showed $355,400 in total sales with a chunk of the auction still to come.

Taylor Trembley's Boer goat, Earl, wore a flowered sash made by Taylor's mom. When he won grand champion at the fair, Taylor gave him a good pet. And she cried.

Taylor, 17, of Carpinteria, predicted Earl would bring more than $1,000 in auction. He brought $3,450. She'll use it for future projects with Carpinteria FFA.

Audrey Zavala's reserve champion steer went for $17,584. But the real story comes in his name, Owen Lowell.

"I named him for my grandfather," said Audrey, 17, of Fillmore. He died last year. "He always believed in me."

Tom Kisken covers health care and other news for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tom.kisken@vcstar.com .

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This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: $20,000 bid, tears and a special grandpa mark VC Fair's junior livestock auction