Wednesday, Dec 14, 2016
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A fitting farewell for saleyards www.guardianonline.co.nz
Pockets of deprivation P3
BY LINDA CLARKE
Auctioneer John Farrell (left) ticks off another pen in the last day’s sale.
LINDA.C@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
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PHOTO LINDA CLARKE 131216-LC-9-9
Friends of the Tinwald saleyards gathered for its last rites yesterday, with past and present livestock reps and farmers trading stories about the glory days. The yards have now closed, after 138 years, and will be disassembled and the land sold. PGG Wrightson Mid Canterbury livestock manager Greg Cook, who has been selling at the yards for the past 24 years, said a big yarding of 1200 sheep was a fitting farewell. “It is the end of an era and a bit of history. It is good to see such a turnout and many familiar faces from days past,” he told a gallery that included vendors and buyers as well as retired livestock agents and farmers who had spent parts of their working lives there. PGG Wrightson organised a special lunch for staff and clients to mark the occasion and a beer trailer parked by the special marquee suggested many tales would be recounted after the last store sheep was sold. “It is the end of an era and it is a fitting
tribute to send Tinwald off with such a good line of lambs,” Cook said. Auctioneer John Farrell had the final honours, leading the crowd round the pens; the first pen of prime lambs selling for $117 a head. Among the blue-shirted livestock reps on the ground was David Bruce, who has bought and sold on behalf of farming clients for about 50 years. Former livestock clerk Robert Dixon was among former staff invited to the farewell lunch and travelled up from Timaru for the occasion. He worked for Wrightsons for 20 years until 1998. He remembers his first ewe fair in 1978 when every pen at the saleyards was full. Dwindling numbers of sheep and buyers have led PGG Wrightson to close the yards and farmers will now transport their animals to Temuka or Canterbury Park in Christchurch for sale. Dixon said he formed many longstanding relationships with both farmers
and staff over his time with Wrightsons and it was good to see many familiar faces at the last sale. Among farmers there for the last sale were cousins Mark Digby and Lindsay Digby, whose great grandfather Octavius Digby designed and built the yards in 1882. Mark remembers coming to the yards as a kid with his father Vernon and Lindsay, who farms at Wakanui Beach with his wife Heather, has traded lambs at the yard over the years. Mark said Octavius’ work at the saleyards was detailed in a family history book. He was a farmer at the time and also ran a butchery with his brother on Tancred Street. “We thought we would come and be part of the last sale,” Mark said. The pair said they would be keen to retain some of the wood from the pens when the yards were disassembled to keep as memento.
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