A group of livestock agents wants its community to talk about mental health

Elders and Paull & Scollard Nutrien agents welcomed representatives from This Is A Conversation Starter (TIACS) to the Wodonga store cattle sale last Thursday, who came along to mark the one-year anniversary of the agencies' $59,000 donation.

Last year the agencies came together to conduct a charity auction to raise funds for the free mental health counselling service that supports truckies, tradies and farmers.

Paull & Scollard Nutrien livestock agent Tim Robinson said last year's result "blew them away", and they wanted to mark the milestone this year to keep the conversation going.

"We didn't get to do the fundraising element this year but we thought it was as important as ever to maintain that position within our saleyards and agricultural community," he said.

"We want to support our colleagues, friends and clients that could be struggling.

"We have a lot of young people that are employed in our business and it's important for us to be role models.

"Having been touched by a loss through mental health, it's something we're very passionate about."

He said the donation to TIACS equated to 650 hours of free counselling, which was "really significant".

He said livestock agents had continued to wear colourful TradeMutt work shirts to the saleyards as a way to start conversations about mental health.

"It doesn't matter if you're from Nutrien or Elders, we are here to do a job, and that's sell store cattle, but also to come together to talk about mental health within our networks," he said.

Since it started four years ago, TIACS has helped more than 18,000 rural Australians.

TIACS co-chief executive Jason Banks said while TIACS was deeply grateful for the donation, there was a more "powerful and profound" benefit from the livestock teams coming together.

"This is not just about fundraising or awareness of our service, these types of events bring communities together," he said.

"The community connection is the biggest winner out of this."

Mr Banks said the service was "only a text away".

"Don't wait until things get too bad," he said.

"If you've had a rough day on the farm and you can't call a mate, text TIACS and we'll get you back on track."