Director / Livestock Assessor
Danny Wilkie learnt his first lesson on the power of effective livestock marketing while searching for alternative markets for his own prime cattle operation almost four decades ago. Tired of having to produce over fat steers in order to attract a premium at the local saleyards, Danny decided to sell direct to works and discovered a far more efficient selling system. In order to keep producing cattle that fitted processor specifications, he recognized that he needed to improve his live cattle assessment skills and he enrolled in an assessing school through the University of New England.
Danny says the exposure to live assessment techniques opened up new possibilities including selling cattle on the emerging electronic system, Computer Aided Livestock Marketing (CALM) – now known as AuctionsPlus.
In 1987 Danny was certified as a Level 1 (Professional) cattle assessor for CALM and in 1988 he was awarded Level 1 (Professional) status for sheep assessment. Level 1 is the highest level of livestock assessing and Danny was the first person in Queensland to achieve this status for both cattle and sheep.
For the next four years, Danny continued to develop his live animal assessment skills through contract assessment for the CALM system, working with a wide range of livestock agents and individual producers throughout Queensland and New South Wales.
By the early 1990s, Danny and Janelle Wilkie were operating a well respected, independent livestock assessment business but felt there was growing demand from producers for objective and reliable marketing services.
Objective Livestock Marketing (OLM) was established in 1992 to meet this demand and their business began providing strategic marketing solutions for a growing client base.
The experience, knowledge and expertise that Danny has gained over many years in the livestock industry has resulted in strong relationships being forged with all facets of beef, sheep and lamb production. He has worked closely with producers and processors to form strategic alliances that benefit both parties. One such alliance is that with Coles, a contract that has been in place since early 2002. This alliance and others have helped create a solid foundation for OLM clients in their marketing plans.
As Objective Livestock Marketing continues to evolve, Danny firmly believes that:
“OLM has now become widely accepted as a business based on integrity and excellence. I expect that the role for a modern relevant beef marketing operation will be to focus on adding value to our clients’ sales while at the same time maintaining a competitive cost structure.”
