Nutrien stud stock agent Gordon Wood explains the most rewarding aspects of his role.
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00:00The best part about my job is, without question, the amount of different people that I get
00:08to meet.
00:09I know people in South Australia and interstate from all parts, from all different parts,
00:13from really pastoral, low rainfall areas to super high rainfall areas and everywhere in
00:21between.
00:22So you get to build a network of friends and clients from all different parts, it's great.
00:27The toughest part of my role is leaving home on a Sunday.
00:31I quite often have to leave home on a Sunday to get to a sale that I'll be auctioneering.
00:35I do like family time on a Sunday, so that's probably the toughest thing.
00:38My first selling was a clearing sale near Bow Hill, and then quite a bit of selling
00:44the calves and lambs and whatnot, or sheep, at Strathalbyn.
00:48How did I get into it?
00:51I suppose someone's pushed into it, I suppose, but I obviously showed some promise because
00:57they keep getting me to do it.
00:59But the skill, I suppose, is something that's probably similar to playing golf or cricket
01:03or anything else, that the more you do it, the better you get at it, I suppose, or you
01:08should do.
01:09And it's just something, plenty of practice, and here we are 22 years later.
01:15I think the highlight of my career has got to be, and this is one of the big highlights
01:20of the role that I have, is mentoring young staff and seeing those young people develop.
01:27So having the opportunity to have some people that start in our business at 15 years of
01:31age, school-based trainees and things like that, that really have no idea, they know
01:37a little bit about farming and maybe a bit about livestock, they have no idea about marketing
01:41and no idea about what an agent actually does, and then to see them develop and take on a
01:46role in an area that's not familiar to them and their own little patch with their own
01:52clients and running their own business as such, that's probably, I think, a highlight for me.