Tearful occasion for long standing agent

As a teenager Andy Mumford had no idea what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. More than 40 years later, he is still working with cattle and still loves it.

A livestock agent with RR and HC Jolly and now Elders, Andy has built a lifetime career in the cattle industry.

He has seen the closure of the Trafalgar saleyards and now the end of an era with the final adult cattle sales at Warragul.

On Wednesday as the final pens of cattle were sold, Andy remained in the thick of the action as he always has, and as the longest serving livestock agent at Warragul.

There is an edge of competitive spirit amongst the agents, but there also is respect and friendship. Many of them have worked together for decades.

For Andy, it is the people that kept him in the industry for so long.

“I have loved the people and doing different things every day, there’s always a challenge.

“There have been a lot of buyers, farmers and meat companies come and go…but a lot of faces have stayed the same,” he said.

Andy’s grandfather was a dairy farmer so he has always been around cattle. His mum raised five young children after his dad died so he said there was an expectation to get working when he was a teenager.

“My first wage was $17 a week and I still managed to pay off a car,” he said.

With only calf and dairy markets continuing at Warragul until March, Andy will continue to be a familiar face at the yards, but not on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

“It is a sad day. I haven’t sat and thought about it all yet but I had a bit of a tear in my eye.

“Warragul is different to any other market, we still pre-weigh here.

“I probably won’t miss the 4am mornings but it’s part of what you do,” he said.

The saleyards has been at its current location opposite the railway yards since the early 1900s when it was a commercial operation run by Skewes and Patterson.

The former Warragul Shire Council purchased the saleyards in 1937.

The saleyards was sold to private enterprise Livestock Marketing Australia in 1999 and operated by director Warren Turner.

Two years later Bill and June Dineen, Baw Baw Livestock Exchange purchased the yards until Victorian Livestock Exchange purchased the business and leased the property from the Dineens.

Elders agent Andy Mumford (right) is the longest serving livestock agent at the Warragul saleyards and was in the action recording sales last week with colleagues Ryan Bajada and auctioneer Michael Robertson.