No two days are the same as a livestock agent for Harry Phillips who loves that aspect of his career.
"I love working with a range of people but more so preparing their stock for suitable markets," Mr Phillips said.
"The beauty of agency is creating such a strong network from all the way to the top to all the way to the bottom of Australia and knowing what is going on everywhere.
Growing up near Bathurst on the family property, Mr Philips said the family ran first cross ewes with a prime lamb operation and black cattle.
Having his roots set in the livestock industry, his passion and a large portion of his knowledge came from home.
After school, Mr Philips attended the Orange Agricultural College and completed a Bachelor of Agricultural Business while working casually for some of the livestock agencies in town.
It was here where he found his love for agency and saw him head across the border.
He received a traineeship with Grant Daniel and Long Pty Ltd in Rockhampton, Queensland, in 2014 where he learnt the ins and outs of the agency career.
But when the opportunity to return to his home-town of Bathurst 18-months ago came up, he jumped at it.
For the past 18 months he as been working with Bowyer and Livermore Livestock Agents as their lead auctioneer.
After moving back to Central West, Mr Phillips said he had to finesse his skills changing from the export Brahman model he faced in Rockhampton, Qld, to a more domestic market with sheep and British-bred cattle.
"The biggest difference is sheep, we predominately worked with more tropical breeds of cattle so I had to dig deep into my mindset and skills to adapt," he said.
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Mr Philips said he sells at the CTLX Carcoar weekly sheep and cattle sales, and the monthly store cattle sales but travels across NSW sale yards sourcing cattle for his clients. As an accredited AuctionsPlus assessor, Mr Philips said it was vital in today's industry as the prices were so high and producers were trying to source stock from across Australia.
"Due to COVID-19, a lot more sales are going online so our product knowledge needs to be spot on," he said.
Mr Phillips said he loved the agricultural industry as a whole and had dreams of running his own successful business.
While re-learning the commercial industry in the Central West, Mr Philips said he does attend a small number of stud sales but doesn't see himself going completely into the stud stock side for "many many moons yet".
Looking at the future of the livestock agent industry, Mr Phillips said there would always be a need for agents but things were changing every day.
"Brutally I think the agency game will get fewer and fewer, and people need to change with the times and if you're not willing to accept what is happening then you're going to get left in the dark," he said.
"I think the young up-and-coming agents are going to take the stage but knowledge is key."
He said it was a good time to be in the industry right now, which was at the top of its game with strong livestock prices.
Mr Philips has also seen some embarrassing moments occur in his time in the yards including one where a person had purchased the wrong lot at a sale but didn't realise until a few lots later.
Some of his sale highlights included selling the $24,000 dog at the Working Dog Challenge Trial and Sale in November last year as well as a pen of three miniature Brahmans.
The best advice he can give being an agent was to always eat a meal when possible because you never know when your next one will be.
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