You might not pick an agent working in the region that hosts the largest physical cattle selling centre in the nation to win an AuctionsPlus award but Roma area manager Keith Crouch has been announced as the Queensland cattle winner of the annual Elders AuctionsPlus awards.
Mr Crouch, with the help of Gary Cartwright, assessed 3673 head, which is over 2000 head more than their best year ever.
He said the branch had been looking at ways of capitalising on the better season in NSW and found the online marketing tool a good option and one they'd keep using.
"It is an accomplishment - there are plenty of Elders branches selling cattle so it's good to have this," he said, adding that he regarded the 2020 award as a team effort.
He's been assessing stock for just over 10 years, mostly in the Roma and Mitchell areas, along with Mr Cartwright, and Brady Jackson has recently become accredited to A3 level.
Elders northern zone AuctionsPlus manager Bob Jakins said Roma had had a massive year on 'the box'.
"Considering Roma is the biggest cattle selling centre in Australia it is a remarkable effort," he said. "Many of the numbers were assessed through the COVID period and it certainly opened the door for several different southern buyers to purchase cattle."
It's no surprise that Longreach branch manager Tim Salter, having earlier this year been announced as the AuctionsPlus national sheep assessor of the year, is the 2020 Elders Queensland sheep award winner.
Mr Jakins said that Mr Salter and his Longreach colleagues at what he described as the 'gun' sheep branch in Queensland, had won the award for the 38,179 head assessed and sold this year.
"There are basically no sheep selling centres in Queensland and AuctionsPlus is the obvious choice when marketing sheep," Mr Jakins said.
"The Longreach branch also purchased plenty of sheep earlier in the financial year in an effort to rebuild sheep numbers in the area.
"Tim now has Tom Cameron on board and he will become an A3 accredited assessor prior to Christmas."
This year's awards will be jostling in Mr Salter's trophy cabinet with his 2015 national sheep assessing award, and the cattle award won by the branch as a whole, thanks to the crushing drought conditions at the time and the need to move stock on.
Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
