If you love animals and want to work with them as a career, becoming a livestock agent may be the perfect fit for you. As a livestock agent, you’ll interact with animals every day, while also learning about and working in the agricultural industry. Before pursuing your goal of becoming a livestock agent, it’s important to understand what being one entails. After all, not everyone is cut out to be around so many different types of animals on a daily basis.
What is a Livestock Agent?
A livestock broker is an individual who connects farmers with buyers of agricultural products, such as produce, livestock, eggs, honey, and more. As a livestock agent, your job is to find buyers for your farmer’s goods and make sure every transaction goes smoothly. Livestock brokers receive orders from farmers and then go around the country visiting livestock agents who have orders outstanding. Agents with orders then contact their clients who may want to sell their excess livestock, beef and dairy farmers most commonly, and offer a price. The livestock agent then gets a commission for their work.
How to Become a Livestock Agent
Before diving into the steps for becoming a licensed livestock agent, it’s important to understand exactly what it means to be a licensed agent. If you’re interested in becoming a livestock agent, but aren’t sure how to go about it, keep reading to find out what you need to know. To become a livestock agent, one option is to become a broker. To become a broker, you must have experience in sales and marketing or have a degree in business administration. If you have no experience in sales, marketing, or business, then you will have a much rougher time to become a licensed broker. For example, if you have experience as a ranch hand, you could work as a broker and help other ranchers get business. Another option is to be a broker as an associate, in which case you’d need to get your broker’s license, as well as your broker’s representative (B-3) license.
Required Skills for Becoming a Livestock Agent
Before you begin the process of becoming a livestock agent, it’s important to understand the skills you’ll need to succeed. While becoming a livestock agent can be rewarding in many ways, it can also be a very time-consuming and demanding career. Therefore, you’ll likely need to put in a significant amount of time, both in the office and on the road, to be successful as a livestock broker.
– Resume Writing – Before you even contact a potential client, you’ll need to create a resume that highlights your relevant experience, education, and skills. You’ll also need to tailor your resume to the types of clients you’re contacting, as well as the type of business you’ll be working for.
– Office Management – As a licensed livestock broker, you’ll be expected to be in the office during normal business hours servicing clients. To succeed as a licensed broker, you’ll need to make sure you’re not overextending yourself during this time.
– Communication Skills – As a licensed livestock broker, you’ll be expected to communicate with clients via the phone, email, and in person. To succeed as a licensed broker, you’ll need to make sure you’re communicating professionally and effectively.
– Business Sense – As a licensed broker, you’ll need to make sure you’re making sound business decisions and setting yourself up for success. To succeed as a licensed broker, you’ll need to make sure you’re setting realistic expectations, as well as avoiding over commitment.
How to Find Licensed Livestock Agents
One of the first steps to becoming a licensed livestock agent is to find licensed livestock agents near you. To do this, go online to google, and type in your city to see if there are any livestock broker associations in your area. If so, you can join the association and potentially meet other licensed brokers in your area. Another option is to start a private Facebook group for the area you live in. Livestock broker associations typically have Facebook groups that members can use to help each other find jobs and connect with potential clients for a living. If you don’t have any livestock broker associations nearby, you can also search for livestock brokers online. You should also keep in mind that you may have to travel if you hope to find work as a livestock agent, so it may be worth it to relocate to find work.
What Kinds of Farms are Looking for Livestock Agents?
One of the main reasons someone would want to become a livestock agent is because they love animals, but that’s not the only reason. Sure, some livestock brokers work with large farms only, but many also work with smaller family farms. Because of this, there’s a wide range of farms looking for licensed agents. For example, you can find dairy farmers who produce milk, beef producers who raise beef, and poultry producers who raise chickens.
Conclusion
If you love animals, understand the agricultural industry, and are ready to make a career out of it, becoming a livestock agent may be the perfect fit for you. Before taking the step, however, it’s important to understand what being one entails. After all, not everyone is cut out to be around so many different types of animals on a daily basis.
