A JOB as a booking clerk for Younghusbands in Albury has spurred a 50-year agency career for Colin Weissel.
For five decades, the affable and astute agent has worked in the one agency business, initially for Younghusbands but then for Elders.
It is a career which has seen him move throughout Victoria and the Riverina, giving him a vast knowledge and network in the rural industry.
Armed with his first company car, an HJ Holden with no air conditioning, he took his first job on the road visiting clients around Lockhart.
Those were days without mobile phones, where messages were written in a book back at the office and when agents returned from their day's work in the field to spend hours returning calls to clients and processors.
Colin sees mobile phones as the biggest advance for agents in his five decades of experience, making their days slightly easier and at least some of their nights their own.
It's clear Colin loves his job no one stays in the same business for 50 years without a passion for what they do but he sees challenges ahead for stock agents.
"We are definitely going through a challenging time," he said.
"A lot of people (farmers) are going direct and we as agents need to be able to provide a service which can add value to what they are doing."
More farmers going exclusively cropping, or decreasing stock numbers, would also influence the success of agents and their agencies.
"I talk to a lot of farmers and if their sons are coming home, they are not interested in stock," Colin said.
Colin is currently based at Wagga Wagga, NSW, and says retirement is on the agenda "one day".
"It really does seem to have gone quickly," he said.
