Winton agent Tom Brodie, Brodie Agencies, was in the rural industry, but sitting on the other side of the agency fence, when he decided he wanted to be a stock agent.
It was after the sale of the late Arthur Earle's pastoral properties, who Mr Brodie had worked for as his pastoral manager, that he joined Philip Black Auctioneers, Longreach, in 2001.
After gaining experience from Mr Black, he formed an alliance with Murray Arthur Agencies, Roma, for the next three years from 2003, until he and wife Emma opened their Winton business.
"This was a very successful partnership with MAA and it gave me time to get my stock and station agent's principal licence," Mr Brodie said.
While most of Brodie Agencies' business is livestock paddock sales and rural property transactions, Mr Brodie said in the past couple of years he had seen a swing back to saleyard selling, due to reduced lines of livestock.
In the years from 2013 to 2015, Brodie Agencies sold an average of 65,000 cattle and 85,000 sheep, which was the buildup of the livestock numbers bred over the good years from 2009 to 2012.
Since then, due to drought, numbers are now in the vicinity of 45,000 cattle and 14,000 sheep.
A big believer in the marketing power of AuctionsPlus, Mr Brodie said it gives a true and accurate description of the livestock and enables buyers from all states to bid with confidence.
"It also gives the producer a better understanding of the value of their livestock," he said.
In 2016, he was awarded Australia's Top Cattle Assessor for online livestock sales platform AuctionsPlus.
In the financial year of 2015-16, Brodie Agencies offered 6800 cattle and 13,000 sheep that were sold to registered bidders throughout the country.
Approximately 72 per cent of these cattle were sold back to Queensland buyers, 25 pc were sold into NSW and the balance into the Northern Territory.
Only 27pc of sheep sold by the agency remained in Queensland, while 73pc were trucked to NSW buyers.
These days, Mr Brodie is more involved in rural property marketing and has taken 15 properties to contract this year alone.
"It has been a big year for property transactions, and we were fortunate enough to get rain," he said.
"A total of 13 of those properties were bought for grass to buyers as far as southern and western NSW, South Australia and the Northern Territory."
Mr Brodie's son Jack has carved an agency career as well, and handles the majority of livestock transactions.
Long term employee Ken Patterson-Kane is in charge of merchandise outlet, and his wife Lyn is administration manager of Brodie Agencies.