Inside the lives of South Australia's top livestock agents
They’re a critical link in Australia’s agricultural industry – but what does a livestock agent actually do? The job is more varied than you might expect.
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When you sit down to have a hearty steak or the Sunday roast lamb, the process of getting it from paddock to plate may not be front of mind.
Livestock agents have the vital role of connecting farmers and their livestock with processors to ensure the meat and dairy industry stays afloat – and, unless you’re from the bush, it’s probably a profession you don’t know a lot about.
From weighing and assessing cattle, conducting and attending auctions, building relationships with their clients and, of course striving, for the best prices, there’s much more to the 9 to 5 of a livestock agent than meets the eye.
Take a look inside the lives and careers of South Australia’s livestock agents and why they love doing what they do.
Kym Endersby and sons Clint and Scott Endersby
Starting his career in the livestock industry 40 years ago, Kym Endersby has been around the block and back again as a livestock agent.
Now aged 68, Mr Endersby has a wealth of experience working as a livestock agent and building his company.
He owns ProStock Livestock based in Mount Compass and now has his two sons, Scott and Clint, following in his footsteps.
“I was working on the dairy and a bloke called Bushy Martin offered me a job as a stock agent, and I took it,” Mr Endersby said.
“I worked for him for about six years and then bought the company along with two other people.”
Mr Endersby went on to build his own yards in 1990 in Mount Compass and has been there ever since. He also opened a butcher shop, Meat at the Mount, 10 years ago as well as selling meat at farmers markets.
Although Mr Endersby has stepped back and let his sons take the reigns, he still manages the finances.
Eldest son, Scott, started out in commercial real estate before joining his father and brother. He’s now the business manager at ProStock and said the best part of the gig was building relationships with clients that have been around the same time as his dad.
“These customers have been there since I was a young boy and have dealt with dad for the whole 40 year journey, so they are really part of my family as I have grown up with them,” Scott said.
Scott said it was a “unique” opportunity to be able to work with his dad and brother everyday.
“I’m quite lucky to get the chance to work with dad and Clint everyday, there’s a lot of people who don’t even see their dad or brother everyday,” he said.
“My brother and I have a yin-yang relationship which complements the business very well.”
Clint started at his dad’s business as a teenager and was always interested in livestock having grown up all around it.
“Something naturally came to me, I always enjoyed it and had an interest in doing it,” he said.
Clint is the livestock manager and works closely with his sibling and dad, which he said “has its moments”.
ProStock looks as though it will be a business that will last generations, with Clint’s son Rilee taking up jobs as well as his brother, Colby, and Scott’s children Aiden and Mikayla.
“Rilee is nearly 18 going through Year 12 and he works here in-between that and seems to really enjoy it … hopefully they (the kids) will be able to take it on and keep it in the family,” Clint said.
Greg Weber-Smith
Livestock agents first came into Greg Weber-Smith’s world when they would visit his father’s property at Laura in the Mid-North.
With a passion for country life and helping locals, Mr Weber-Smith got into the business in 1978 and eventually started his own business, Fleurieu Livestock, in 1993.
Fleurieu Livestock is based in Yankalilla and specialises in beef cattle and sheep.
“As an agent, your clients become quite special to you, there’s a great deal of trust in client relationships that you have to uphold,” Mr Weber-Smith, 63, said.
With over 40 years’ experience as a livestock agent, working in all different parts of SA, Mr Weber-Smith said a lot has changed.
“The days used to be really long before mobile phones, you had to know the farmers’ timetables and ring them when you knew they were in for a lunch break or really late at night to sort out auctions and livestock deliveries,” he said.
“In the old days, after a sale you would also have to add up the sale of say 30,000 sheep off the top of your head, now there’s technology for all that.”
Mr Weber-Smith serves more than 50 clients on the Fleurieu Peninsula and specialises in sales direct from the property to the processor or to another land holder.
He said the largest sales in his career have been 60,000 sheep and one draft (424) of cattle in one line.
Adam Bradley
At 22, Adam Bradley had no plans for his future other than an inkling to go to Western Australia.
From his family farm in Kybybolite outside of Naracoorte, he said he packed his footy bag, cricket bag, a swag and the basics he needed and travelled over the border to WA originally to play sport and find a new life.
Unfortunately, a disastrous leg injury devastated his sporting plans, but his footy coach steered him to a career as a livestock agent.
“I feel like I just fell into the career, basically,” Mr Bradley said.
“The footy coach was an Elders livestock agent and suggested I look into it, and I ended up with an Elders traineeship in WA and went from there.”
Mr Bradley spent eight years as an agent in WA and with his background in farming and livestock, he thrived.
He moved back to SA to be closer to family and eventually start his own office. He is currently a sole agent under Platinum Livestock in Keith.
“In this job, you have such a sense of freedom but you have to be self-motivated all the time,” Mr Bradley said.
“Your day starts from 7am and doesn’t finish until maybe 9.30pm, you live and breath the job.”
Mr Bradley told a funny yet terrifying story at one of his jobs at Shark Bay in WA.
He had to ferry thousands of sheep over the sea, and when one accidentally fell in, he had to strip down to his jocks and save it. Little did he know, Shark Bay was named that way for a reason.
“I picked this sheep up and put it back on the barge, and the next minute the guys on the other side were yelling at me to get out of the water as I was 50 metres away from a big tiger shark,” Mr Bradley said.
“I pretty much walked on water with a brown stream behind me, it was frightening.”
Mat MacDonald
Straight out of school, Mat MacDonald started an apprenticeship with Southern Australian Livestock (SAL) and has been there ever since.
His grandparents had farming land which was sold off, and Mr MacDonald thought starting his career as a livestock agent just made sense.
“The family farm was sold so I didn’t get the opportunity to go farming myself, and being a livestock agent was the next best thing,” Mr MacDonald said.
“You get the most rewarded with the relationships you build up on the job. You make friends as well as trying to get the best results for your clients.”
At 32, Mr MacDonald has now been with SAL in Naracoorte for 15 years and thrives in the ever-changing environment.
“Making those big sales feels like grand final day, you can walk away feeling really happy or you can walk away and it’s a tough loss. There’s a bit of a philosophy there of how it all fees,” he said.
Darren Maney
Darren Maney started his career back in 1987, and at the end of June this year will be retiring for a well-deserved holiday and life on the farm.
He is currently the director of TDC Livestock and Property in Penola and started off as a stock agent.
“The job was basically marketing livestock for farmers, we’re looking to on-sell them to processors and other farmers,” Mr Maney said.
“You develop a knowledge of the industry to make livestock meet the specifications of each different processor, it’s a lot of working with animals and very hands on.”
Mr Maney grew up in a rural background in Mount Gambier and always loved working with animals. His father was a third generation butcher, so Mr Maney has always had a passion for the meat industry.
“It’s a great way of working outdoors with different people, in different facilities … every day is different,” Mr Maney said.
“When you think about it, when you live in towns with 200 to 2000 people, it’s very hard to find a professional career … it’s the one area that you can have a completely professional career in a small country town.”
After almost 40 years, Mr Maney will hang up his boots in the industry at the end of the month and will be celebrating abroad.
“We’re about to head off to England and go to a couple of cricket Tests over there and have a look around Europe, I’ve never been able to do much of that as it’s always been so busy,” he said.
“I’ve also got a small farm which I’ll quite enjoy looking after in retirement.”
Scott Altschwager
With a huge interest in agriculture, Scott Altschwager thought getting into a career as a stock agent was a no-brainer.
He had an uncle who was an agent as well as a few family friends who helped him get started in 1988.
At 17, Mr Altschwager started as an admin trainee with Elders and then moved up and is now a branch manager.
“In my role I deal with a client base here in Millicent on a daily basis. It’s particularly heavy in the spring and summer months when most of the livestock here are ready to market,” Mr Altschwager said.
“I joined the industry as I loved working with people and livestock and I don’t ever want to lose that aspect.”
Many of the farmers and clients Mr Altschwager has built relationships with have become friends.
“You share stories about your lives with each other, you support each other in times of need and when things aren’t going as smoothly as you hoped in life,” he said.
“You almost become a family member to those clients as you deal with them every day of the year.”
A memorable tale for Mr Altschwager during his career was the time he had an order for a “Noah’s Arc” for someone in the United Arab Emirates while working in live exporting.
“They weren’t mainstream animals, they were almost like zoo animals, in very small numbers and pretty exclusive to Australia,” he said.
“The person gave us a shopping list of what he wanted as part of the shipment … there were milking buffalo, camels, goats, an array of sheep and cattle.”
Hundreds of animals were sent as part of the order, which Mr Altschwager was successful in sourcing and delivering.
Leo Redden
After finishing his Year 12 exams in 1983, Leo Redden only had a 10-day holiday before he started work as a livestock agent.
With on-the-job training, Mr Redden stared as a junior clerk in the merchandise area and then moved into livestock later.
“That was the first seven years of my career, then I started a business with my brothers in 1990, it was a franchisee of what was then Dalgety, which was based in Gawler and Riverton,” Mr Redden said.
“That was when the sheep cull was on, Australia had lost the wool reserve price and the wool market collapsed … that was a really difficult time for the industry but we’ve turned it around now.
“It’s quite an incredible turnaround now, I would be happy in the future if we got to a scenario where we couldn’t afford to buy our own lamb and it was like crayfish.”
Seven years ago, Mr Redden and his brothers signed off their business to Nutrien, where Mr Redden works currently as an auctioneer of stock and real estate as well as a business development manager.
“Often we’ve had sales where we have conducted an auction that will start at 9am and go through to 6pm,” he said.
Mr Redden said getting to work as a livestock agent gives a person broader business skills than any business degree at a university.
“We’re dealing with real-time commodity markets everyday and trying to make judgment calls on the best way to approach those markets,” he said.
“To grow up in an industry like that where marketing is happening everyday in real time is great education and the next best thing to being a farmer.”
Will Nolan
Growing up on a farm in Lucindale set the perfect scene to start a life as a livestock agent.
Will Nolan, now livestock manager for SAL, started as a livestock agent with Landmark in 2001 after a couple of years travelling around the country jackarooing.
“I managed the Landmark Burra branch for six years and I was in Burra for about 14 years and loved it,” Mr Nolan said.
“An opportunity came up for a livestock role in Naracoorte and I jumped at the chance … now I’m with SAL and have been since 2015.”
Mr Nolan was always used to country life growing up on his parents farm and flourished as a livestock agent.
“When we weren’t at school or playing footy, we’d be home working on the farm so I had that passion all along which helped me obviously. I never had any intention to do anything else,” he said.
“I love the land and what it produces and it’s been a hell of a career.”
Mick Noble
Born and bred in Cleve, Mick Noble had a gap year after finishing Year 12 then started off his career in agriculture with shearing sheep.
After his stint as a shearer, Mr Noble started a graduate agronomist program with Elders at Jamestown, which kickstarted his career as an agent in 2009.
“The path I was going to take was going to be a uni graduate in agriculture, I never actually thought of being an agent,” Mr Noble said.
“I worked in Jamestown as an agent for 18 months, then my old man got crook and it was sort of all tied up, and then I ended up back at home and Elders made a job for me in Cleve and I’ve been there ever since.”
Mr Noble said a thrill for him in the job was the interaction with his clients and working to get the best result.
“I love dealing with the clients, being on farms and being outside,” he said.
Now 35, Mr Noble still continues his life as an agent in Cleve, conducting auctions, liaising with his clients and dealing with a whole lot of sheep.
Chris Manser
Life as a livestock agent “always appealed” to Chris Manser, who started out in 1988.
“I started as a young fella in 1988 as an agent, I actually had a cousin in the industry and after a chat with him I was able to get a chance,” Mr Manser said.
Mr Manser started with Victorian Producers Operative, which are now no longer operating. He now runs his own business, Green Triangle Livestock, in Mount Gambier.
“I’ve never discriminated with farms, I don’t care if they’ve got 20 acres or 10,000. I offer the same services and treat them the same,” Mr Manser said.
“You become part of their family, you go to weddings, christenings and funerals.”
Mr Manser remembers taking some clients to a sale and one of them, a lady, told him he was “as big of a part of their business as their bank manager”, which is something he has never forgotten.
“We (livestock agents) are a big part, we market their animals for them and try to find the best place for them,” he said.
With two sons who are also now livestock agents, Mr Manser is proud of his impact on the industry and his kids.
“They followed in dad’s footsteps which has been a source of such pride for me and a pat on the back,” he said.
“My middle boy Josh is in Naracoorte and my eldest son, Garth, and I started up Green Triangle Livestock seven years ago this November, and it’s going really well.”
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