If you ask anyone today, especially in Santo, do you require a middleman for your business? Someone who negotiates on your behalf? Someone who can facilitate your cash transactions? Or that someone who through contractual agreements is supposed to supply you so much during a period of time? Most buyers/markets would say NO! The cattle industry is such a big playing field that investing in a cattle business/farming requires time, capital investment and trusted partners.
So what is it about middleman/agents that is so wrong that most buyers would say "NO" to hiring out middleman or agents. This is true across the entire production sector - livestock and agriculture. The experience is that most middleman hired out either double-crossed you or they would make excuses of death of a loved one, being very sick, weather conditions and so forth for not doing what they supposed to do.
Looking from other perspective, if well managed and utilized to its potential middleman/agent can be the advantage or the edge of doing business and competing in the market. For instance, having spotters(middleman) out in the field to spot good cattle stock, reduces costs to find stock and time and satisfies your market conditions - customers preference of time. To add more, spotters are usually experienced with their trade, so conditions that your market requires that is maybe over your head, their skills maybe the solution to your market factors.
The challenge is, how can there be a mutual understanding where there is a mutual beneficial relationship? If it exists, how can it be maintained? The whole concept of middleman/agents is a reciprocal relationship, it is give and take and again it has to be mutual.
