First muster becomes job of a lifetime

Kevin Bensemann says it has been a team effort.

01-02-2010 | Terry Tacon

When young Kevin Bensemann was offered the chance to be involved with a muster on Bluff Station, inland from Kaikoura, the proviso was that he took correspondence lessons with him.

The lessons went with him all right, in the saddle bags on a 17 hands, docked horse called George, but that was where they stayed because the would-be student was enjoying himself too much with the muster and subsequent crutching of the station's hoggets.

It was an introduction to livestock that started him on a career in the industry which came to a formal end in December when he stepped down from the position of livestock manager with ANZCO-owned Riverlands, handing over the reins to Warick McKey.

He isn't entirely severing his association with the company and will continue to do contract work for Riverlands.

After 20 years of being associated with the operation it makes sense to see his expertise isn't entirely lost, but Kevin says he and his wife, Lynette, will find time to do some caravanning, including undertaking an extensive tour of the South Island, going down memory lane.

It's not surprising that will be one of their priorities - they both hail from the South Island, Kevin growing up in the Blenheim area. After the Bluff Station muster he was involved with as a youngster, he took a job on Muller Station, just alongside the iconic Molesworth Station.

When he turned 20, with a solid grounding in stock and dog work, the latter launching him on a lifetime's involvement with dog trialling, he was told to apply for a stock agent's job with Pyne Gould Guinness and was interviewed by one of the company's principals, D W J (Derek) Gould, a man he recalls as "a true gentleman of the stock and station industry".

Posted to Blenheim, he worked with some of the legends of the region's livestock operations, including A R J Morrison, Hugh Byrn, Bob Taggart and John Marris. The latter moved to the real estate side of the business and when the company began selling an increasing number of farming properties for viticulture, head auctioneer Bensemann conducted many of the clearing sales.

"It was demoralising, especially as I had developed an interest in the stud stock side of things and I could see it virtually disappearing as grapes took over."

He was offered a job in the North Island with Waverley-based FCOS and moved there, starting the company's deer division. Some of the properties he introduced deer to are still committed to the animals.

His own association with deer goes back to that first mustering trip on Bluff Station when he can recall seeing a mob of 50 hinds with a stag. On another occasion he saw a herd of 200 hinds in the Mackenzie Basin.

When Elders set up in Taranaki, Bensemann was headhunted to take on the job of area manager and didn't endear himself to FCOS' boss Keith Newlands when he took four of the other agents
with him - Newlands' son Don (now Taranaki manager of PGG Wrightson) among them.

In 1989, when Riverlands was owned by J C Hutton Ltd, Bensemann made what was to be his final move when he was approached by Huttons' chief executive, John Buxton, to take on the job as livestock manager. Subsequently the company was bought by Brierleys, then by Graeme Harrison, the head of ANZCO.

When he began, the company had four livestock staff in Taranaki, one in King Country and one in Manawatu and was processing around 56,000 cattle. Today there are eight salaried staff and 12 commission buyers around the country and the company processes 246,000 animals annually.

While Bensemann has been a key figure behind the growth of the Riverlands operations, at one point covering 93,000km around the country in a bid to secure supply when the beef market crashed, he says that it has been a team effort and that he had been fortunate in the quality of management and staff with whom he had worked.

He considers himself lucky to work with the executive team under the leadership of Trevor Johnston.

Another colleague that Bensemann gave credit to for the livestock side of the operation running well was the company's livestock co-ordinator, Helen Kelly, who handles the contact between the livestock team, transport companies and the plants, keeping track of arrival times, species, numbers etc.

"She is an essential part of the operation and her ability for dealing with people is exceptional," he said.

He and Warick McKey have been working together for several years, McKey having originally been a buyer based in Otorohonga, first as an independent, then as a salaried member of staff.

Away from the company, family and rugby are his big interests. The Bensemanns have four children and one of their sons, Lindsay, has his own livestock business in Pahiatua and Taihape, while Phillip was formerly a livestock auctioneer but now runs a leading Auckland auction house, AB Auctions. Their third son, Chris, is a detective inspector in Wanganui while daughter Hayley manages an accountancy office in Hawera.

The rugby interest saw Kevin coaching teams from 1967 to 1985 in the South and North Islands. He was a member of the executive of the Marlborough Rugby Union from 1975-80. He still follows rugby keenly and has many fine memories of games and players. The late Alister Hopkinson, an All Black and Canterbury player, was head auctioneer when Kevin worked with PGG.

He is still involved with the Egmont Dog Trial Club in Hawera and is on the executive of the Egmont A & P Association.

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