As a young Kangaroo Island stud breeder, Ian Turner made his mark on the livestock industry as a foundation breeder of the White Suffolk breed and importer of Suffolk sheep from the United States.
But in the past 30 years, he has arguably had an even greater influence helping other sheep and cattle studs market themselves and their genetics.
On Tuesday, Ian was made a life member of Rural Media & Communicators SA/ NT, in recognition of his generosity volunteering with the organisation and his successful career in marketing and advertising.
His first foray into the media was in 1992-93 as the managing editor of the The Islander newspaper, which at the time was owned by Neville Cordes, who Ian had previously worked for in his consulting business.
"I was still farming at the time, so would often go into the (The Islander) office at the end of the day after lamb marking with blood and mud on me to set the paper for that week - it must have been a sight," he said.
In late 1995, with the collapse of wool prices and skyrocketing interest rates, Ian and his family made the difficult decision to sell the farm, which was first settled by his forebears in 1882.
Ian and his wife Wendy moved to Adelaide with their children and he joined Stock Journal 's livestock department first as a rep and for the final three years as the stud stock manager.
Eight years later in mid-2003, Ian and Wendy started PR company Superior Selections.
They recognised there was a gap they could fill helping stud breeders with not just advertising, but photography and marketing content.
"By then I had had enough, I took three weeks holidays (from Stock Journal) and made a list of 40 people we wanted to visit, every one said 'we will talk to you' and 80 per cent came on board," he said.
"Many livestock breeders loved the breeding side of things and while marketing is a key part of the stud business, some were not doing it that well, some just weren't that interested and others didn't have the time."
You become part of their family without being a family member. You know everything about them and I always enjoyed sharing in their successes.
- IAN TURNER
Many were already friends, but Ian says they had a spread of clients across mainland Australia and even a couple in New Zealand.
"Like farming we knew we needed to have diversity and what was up now may not be up in five years time or there may be a drought somewhere, so we had some beef cattle clients and then sheep clients, but made sure there were a few different breeds of sheep," he said.
Within four years of leaving Stock Journal, Ian was back, writing regular column Turn It Up, which was always well-read.
He was also a freelance writer for Rural Press and his byline appeared on comprehensive sale reports in their papers. His content was used in more than 80 publications.
For 14 years, he also produced The Muster magazine for the Australian Stud Sheep Breeders' Association and the Australian Poll Dorset Journal for five years.
He says he always considered it a "huge responsibility" to promote his clients' annual offerings and had enormous satisfaction seeing how they progressed throughout the years.
His clients included many industry heavyweights like Allendale Poll Hereford stud, Bordertown; Woonallee Simmental stud, Furner; and Banquet Angus stud, Mortlake, Vic, but he equally enjoyed working with some of the smaller studs.
"You become part of their family without being a family member. You know everything about them and I always enjoyed sharing in their successes," he said.
Across the years of Superior Selections, Ian clocked up more than 750,000 kilometres, often on the road for days at a time during ram sale season, but Ian says Wendy was a big part of the success.
In one of the businesses final years, he added up that their 40 clients' sales had grossed $19 million for the season - and that was before the big lift in sale averages.
"We decided we needed to step down a bit and take advantage of what we had worked hard for and spend more time with the grandchildren," he said.
"In 2017 we wrote to all our clients and said we were hopeful we would find a replacement for them to use, which wasn't to be. In 2018 many of the clients still used us on a freelance basis, but eventually we decided to fully retire."
RELATED READING:
At the same time as the Turners established Superior Selections, Ian also became a member of Rural Media SA.
"I had always been interested in networking and learning more about important topics and Rural Media SA is an important vehicle to get ag messaging out to the wider community," he said.
In 2008, when then RMSA president Ian Doyle called for "new blood" to join the committee, he stepped up. He also became the man behind the camera at countless functions.
For several years, he was also a judge in the RMSA photography awards, before taking over in 2016 as the coordinator of the section, a role he fulfilled until 2021.
He encouraged many journalists to also enter their images and co-sponsored a new category for the Best Rural and Regional Photojournalist.
Ian says his family's extensive community involvement set an example to him and a fatal car accident that he was involved in, in 1972, also made him determined to make a positive contribution to life wherever he could.
He is "hugely honoured" to receive the RMC life membership and will treasure it alongside the same honours from the Australian Suffolk Society and Australian White Suffolk Association.
"I have always believed that whatever you do you give it 100pc, whether that is breeding sheep, selling ads or drinking wine," he said.
