Howard Gardner Award - AuctionsPlus Awards 2024

4 September 2024

An article by AuctionsPlus

David Welsh from Nutrien Ag Solutions, Benalla, has been announced as the winner of the Howard Gardner Award for 2024.

The Howard Gardner Award is presented by AuctionsPlus to an assessor who demonstrates the values of innovation, loyalty, humility and community in their efforts to guide the next generation of assessors forward.

This award honors the contribution of Howard Gardner in paving the way forward for livestock marketing, as the Original Chief Executive Officer of the company.

The criteria for the successful recipient of the coveted Howard Gardner includes being a well-known mentor and leader of early career assessors and an active AuctionsPlus accredited assessor with more than a decade of experience listing on the platform.

They must be a champion and innovative user of the AuctionsPlus platform and technology, as well as someone who demonstrates a high level of personal integrity, community engagement and carries on the legacy of Howard Gardner.

Mr Welsh has been proven a worthy recipient of the award as he embodies the ideal AuctionsPlus assessor, championing the platform and actively engaging with members of AuctiuonsPlus to continuously improve the platform.

Supporting AuctionsPlus and guiding early careers has been displayed by Mr Welsh, as he continues to be a reliable training assessor throughout his region.

Always one to go above and beyond while maintaining the utmost integrity in his work, Mr Welsh has been noted as a "pleasure to work with, always up for a chat to discuss how we can best cater for producers".

AuctionsPlus Awards 2024 (5)

After a couple of decades of close collaboration with AuctionsPlus it is very humbling to accept the Howard Gardner Award.

From an early stage in my career I could see clearly that this platform would grow and provide both great confidence to buyers, and to sellers in optimising their sales results in a nationwide market.

Early in my working life I had some key advice – “Tell it like it is”, and this really forms the basis of what we’re doing with objective assessment of livestock; we’re declaring the product for all it’s qualities and allowing the buyer to make a thoroughly informed decision.

Although markets in the past 12 months have presented some challenges to growers, I feel that we’ve achieved the best results possible.

I encourage my clients to be forward thinking and to plan for adversity; we live with great climate and seasonal challenges in many parts of the country so being able to present for sale, and to buy stock from other zones is key to making the most of opportunities.

If I can see any threats to our sector emerging, it is that decision making for farmers is taken over by people who don’t understand their issues.

Politics can be divisive and be overtaken by special interest groups who have little empathy for farmers and rural concerns. I encourage people to find their voice and be active in their communities.

“Tell it like it is."

I have been involved with mentoring and skill development for assessors for many years and have taken satisfaction in seeing new and highly skilled assessors emerge.

It’s easy to do something that you strongly believe in, and at the end of the day I’m a champion of AuctionsPlus because we have access to an open and transparent national marketplace.

Through the AuctionsPlus Awards, we celebrate our community of assessors, agents, vendors, buyers and other valued industry members who play an integral role in driving the nation's largest agricultural marketplace forward.