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Greenham cattle buyer celebrates 50 years of service to the meat industry

2005-12-13



Ian Millen, buyer for Greenham Tasmania in the central and east district celebrated 50 years in the Tasmanian cattle industry on December 12.

Ian has a wealth of experience having trained as a buyer with historic meat producer and exporter J.C. Hutton in 1955, the first year he started work. He weathered company buyouts and changeovers to join the Greenham organisation when they first came to Tasmania four years ago.


"I’ve seen quite a few changes over the years," Ian said. "Farming and business technology have changed the way that farmers work and, over the years, I’ve seen many of our farmers evolve from the traditional image of the ‘cocky’, happy to be working on the land, to the sort of farmer you see today smart, adaptable and well-informed.

"To be successful I think you have to be pretty knowledgeable about farming and farming business as well as having a bit of a grip on your markets to know how to keep up.

"I would advise anyone taking on a farming enterprise to make sure they are fairly well educated in all farming practices and to be shrewd about the way they run their business. It’s pretty competitive out there.

"There are some real threats to these farms now, and in the future, especially with tree farming becoming the growth industry," Ian said. "Tree farming is big business and it’s taking the place of productive dairy and beef farms. That will have quite a bearing on both industries in the years to come."

Despite such long service to the industry Ian says he has no plans to retire and continue to work with Greenham Tasmania "…as long as they want me!"

"I’ve enjoyed my time with Greenham; the work was different to what I had been used to because of the liveweight system they run, but I got the hang of it and it suits me."

Greenham Tasmania Manager Peter Greenham said Ian’s experience and contacts were valuable assets to the company and would be hard to replace.

"And you’d go a long way to find such a well-respected 'gentleman' in any business," Mr Greenham said.