Stock and station agent - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Stock and station agents provide a support service to the agricultural community. They advise and represent farmers and graziers in business transactions that involve livestock, wool, fertiliser, rural property and equipment and merchandise on behalf of their clients. The quantity and importance of these businesses fell in the late twentieth century.

These rural business services institutions originated, when communications were slow and often very difficult, to cope with the double remoteness of early Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n and New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

primary producers from their nearest settlement and, particularly in the case of wool, from their overseas markets. In practice they were the pastoralist's banker. Similar, and sometimes the same organisations operated in Latin America and mid-west USA where there was extensive pastoral farming.

The industry

Stock refers to livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...

, its purchase and sale.
Station refers to a facility equipped with special equipment and personnel for a particular purpose—in this case in Australasia—for pastoral industry, see Australia: Stations
Station (Australian agriculture)
Station is the term for a large Australian landholding used for livestock production. It corresponds to the North American term ranch or South American estancia...

and New Zealand: Stations
Station (New Zealand agriculture)
A station, in the context of New Zealand agriculture, is a large farm dedicated to the grazing of sheep and cattle. The use of the word for the farm or farm buildings date back to the mid-nineteenth century....

. The same word was used for a defensible residence constructed on the American frontier during the early nineteenth century.
They operate as the agent of their client, on behalf of the particular pastoralist or farmer.

The company

These businesses grew to provide their clients with every product or service they might want right from employees or seasonal working capital to, in the person of a client's personal stock agent, close personal friend and personal confidant who regularly visited them, maintained the client's loyalty and kept them up to date with events in the community and their industry. His branch manager might often be unable to maintain an easy relationship with clients unable to fulfill their financial obligations. The branch manager's knowledge of his client's business activities was such and his control over the client's spending was such he could ration their spending on sugar and flour.

They also act as local managers of properties on behalf of absentee owners deceased estates and mortgagees technically in possession of properties.

They provide retail stores in small towns for agricultural requirements selling, for example, animal health supplies, animal feed, fencing materials, fertilizer, machinery and tools, and even clothing and groceries.

Stock Sales

An important activity is to organise regular local livestock sales at a community's commercial saleyards. Small rural communities may hold a single annual sale at local saleyards and this may be the highlight of their autumn business and social calendar.

The stock agent

A vital and well-liked part of their rural community, in remote areas, stock agents perform a variety of commercial and social functions. They bring to outlying homesteads on farms and stations stores, mail and newspapers, local news and gossip.

Next the stock agent turns to real work and:
reports to his client on market trends and prices;
sorts stock into lines for sales;
sorts prime animals for the freezing works;
values livestock and advises on different marketing options for stock;
arranges penning and auction;
arranges private sales between sellers and buyers.
arranges transport of stock to saleyards;
conducts sales of wool on behalf of clients on a commission basis;
sells a wide range of agricultural products including chemicals;
arranges clearing sales of surplus machinery plant and equipment; and
arranges insurance.

He also advises and assists clients in the management of agricultural or pastoral companies, stock or farming problems;
arranges finance for the buying of livestock or property; and
brings prospective buyers to inspect properties for sale.

Specialisations

Individual stock agents, within the same agency, may specialise in any one of the preceding activities

"Arranged marriage: Farmers expect their stock agents to perform a range of tasks and services. One agent even acted as a go-between for a client who wanted to get married but was too shy to propose to the woman!"

The close and enduring individual client relationships which are formed are seen as a forerunner of the newer concept of relationship marketing.

In his history of the industry Simon Ville says: ". . . the stock and station agent has been a legendary figure in local folklore, connected or related to many individuals and groups, a central figure embedded in rural settler communities and about whom everyone has had a view. This social perspective helps inform our understanding of the agent's role and importance in economic activities since trust, reputation, and personal connection were the vital lubricants in sustaining business relationships and networks."

Some notable stock and station agencies

Some of these businesses grew very large in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.