Making opportunities and creating growth.

Opportunity is a recurring theme in the near 40-year career of Tom Mowat: opportunities he’s taken, and opportunities he’s created for others.

Coming back to a role he previously held between 2015 and 2018, Tom was recently re-appointed as PGG Wrightson North Island livestock manager.

Tom reckons its many moving parts makes the roles so fulfilling.

“You must deal with what’s in front of you. It’s a dynamic business and a moving target. While the agricultural sector is doing well right now, in the back of your mind is what happens when prices change? You must be ready for the volatility, riding the ups and downs, knowing how to deal with the good and the bad,” he says.

Tom’s major motivator is seeing young people come through and succeed.  

“We want to create an environment for people to succeed. As an organisation, we want to do that for our clients and our staff.”

Growing up on a Kaikoura sheep and beef farm, Tom started his career straight out of school, shifting to Christchurch to work as a wool classer for PGG Wrightson predecessor Pyne Gould Guinness. Stints on farms and overseas followed, then a move to Gisborne as a wool rep, before relocating to Hawke’s Bay in 2000, where he’s still based and where he initially worked for another PGG Wrightson predecessor Williams and Kettle. In 2018 he went to another rural services company, returning to PGG Wrightson in March. Pictured below: Tom with youngest son, George at pet day in 2013.

As he sees it, every day is a different day.

“Farming is full of variety, and full of characters. There’s no right way or wrong way. If you have ten different farmers, you can see they all farm in a different way.

“Although there are plenty of great days, some days are not so great. That makes our role so rewarding: everything that goes with that. If you’re having a great season, clients will go into sales all guns blazing, though when we have a drought or a market downturn, this becomes more of a support role. No one season is the same, and each region has its own unique characteristics,” he says.

Returning to the company, and the role, Tom has set himself a few simple objectives.

“Nothing dramatic, my focus is to improve the business as much as possible, by focusing on serving our clients. My job is to ensure the right people are in the appropriate roles, doing a good job, enjoying what they are doing, and ensuring our customers are satisfied.”

He expects new technology, including bidr, to play an important role in the next few years.

“bidr is a game changer for plenty of farmers. Being in Northland and seeing someone sitting in Southland buying your stock, it’s pretty exciting.”

AI is also set to make a difference, Tom reckons.

“We have to adapt and learn to work with it. That said, AI won’t replace the personal touch between farmer and livestock agent, which is such a massive part of the business, and will continue to be so.”

Outside work, Tom and wife Ginny spend much of their time on their Raukawa, Hawke’s Bay sheep and beef property.  They also enjoy following sport, particularly their adult sons Harry and Fred, who have cricket contracts overseas. Meanwhile youngest son George is studying at Lincoln University, aspiring one day to become a livestock agent. Pictured below: Tom and wife Ginny, with their sons Harry and Fred in 2018.
 

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