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CLOSING THE GATE: Retired livestock buyer Doug Marra. Photo: Alan Gibson/Dscribe Media
Taking stock after 50 years
Livestock buying is in Doug Marra’s blood, so there was little surprise when he became the third generation of his family to take up the vocation. On his retirement from Silver Fern Farms, he spoke to Neal Wallace.
MUCH happens in a 50-year career, so it is always curious reflecting on those pivotal moments.
In the 51 years Doug Marra has worked in the meat industry, some of his recollections are more about his clients and associated experiences than the process of procuring and processing livestock.
Those include livestock buyers supplying both the car and being the designated driver to take clients to rugby matches – after which post-match festivities often extended well into the night – to spending hours each night on the phone arranging drafting appointments with farmers and organising the transporting of stock.
Another recollection is the various machinations of meat industry mergers and acquisitions and, having spent most of his career in Rotorua, he vividly recalls the displacement of sheep and beef farms by dairy in the Central Plateau.
“You wonder where it has all gone,” Doug said, as he reflected on his career.
“You start out as a young man straight out of high school and next minute you’re retiring.”
His father Ray and grandfather Jack both worked as livestock buyers for R & W Hellaby Ltd and despite initially considering an accountancy career, Doug decided in 1970 to accept an offer of a three-year cadetship with Hellabys, similar to a modern day graduate programme.
Hellaby, a multi-plant processor based in Auckland, both exported meat and operated 30 butchers shops in the city under the trade name Prime Meats.
The cadetship exposed Doug to multiple aspects of the industry, from small goods, export sales and stock procurement, to working on the slaughter floor at the Shortland freezing works at Otahuhu.
That role required Doug to balance each day’s kill and to each night call agents with the weights of the stock they consigned.
Soon Doug reached a point where he had to decide what role he wanted to pursue with Hellaby, a decision that was made for him when he spent a summer working alongside Rotorua agent Eric Anderson.
“I had decided I was not that good at anything, so I got a job at Rotorua and spent summer working with Eric Anderson,” he said.
“For three to four months I worked as a backing dog, drafting tens of thousands of lambs on the Central Plateau.
“It meant a lot of 5am drafts.”
His first job was drafting 100 mostly wild bullocks on horseback – a challenge for someone who was not a horse rider.
At the end of the 1973 summer, Doug was to head back to Auckland but Anderson intervened, telling his employer that he had trained him as he wanted him trained and that Doug should stay.
He believes there was another reason Anderson intervened.
A former All Black, Anderson coached the Old Boys club and Doug was a handy player, having represented Auckland age group sides.
He stayed in Rotorua as a junior agent, having also met Sue, his future wife.
They had four children: Jodeen, Jeff, Simon and Tim.
In 2013, they semi-retired to Ohope in the Bay of Plenty, during which Doug continued to work for longtime clients, some of whom go back 45 years.
His son Simon took over his Rotorua position, the fourth generation of the family to work as a livestock buyer.
Having now retired, Doug is closing a chapter on a career that has provided plenty of change.
Having started working for Hellabys, sales, mergers, acquisitions and job opportunities meant he has also worked for Producer Meats Ltd (PML), where future Silver Fern Farms chief executive Keith Cooper worked, Andy Lowe’s Hill Country Beef business as a commissioned buyer, Richmond and finally Silver Fern Farms.
His time with Hill Country Beef coincided with one of the most significant individual improvements for the industry, the introduction of cellphones.
Same day killing was also introduced and later, the advent of the internet and email reduced the time spent each night planning his days.
On a personal level, the changing farming landscape gave Doug the chance to reinvigorate his career.
“I had gotten a bit stale after 20 years,” he said.
“Sue and I had four children and I was reflecting on what I wanted to do.”
That injection of enthusiasm came from the influx of dairy farmers converting sheep and beef farms on the Central Plateau.
“Dairy farmers need bulls and to quit calves, so I saw an opportunity and went to a commercial bull breeder and arranged a source of service bulls,” he said.
“My business was quiet from August to October, so that is when I was supplying service bulls to the industry.
“I had one breeder supplying 1200 bulls to the industry.”
His business changed to 80% supplying prime stock and 20% service bulls and weaner bulls.
All the time the business dynamics were changing, Doug says the fundamentals of servicing clients remains the same: communication and respect.
“It’s that sort of service to clients that is important and (that) has not changed,” he said.
“You don’t screw over a guy one week and hope to do business with him next month.”
Getting adequate space allocation at meat works at certain times of the year remains an agent’s greatest challenge.
“Space was always an issue from January to May when everyone wanted it when it could get dry,” he said.
“You never get as much as you want, but it’s how you manage your clients and work with farmers and the meat company.”
The meat industry is a very different beast today. Where once there were two large plants in Hawke’s Bay, today there is one large plant working shifts.
Another significant change is the growth of bull beef, with some farmers now some of Doug’s largest clients.
He praises the management at SFF, saying they are supportive, innovative and by being marketled have changed the meat industry.
“The guys at the top of our company now are really good leaders and good communicators and I think that is important,” he said.
Doug says it has been an enjoyable career through which he has made some wonderful friends, both other buyers and farmers along the way, but he now and Sue hope to spend more time with their 11 grandchildren.
