For retiring Silver Fern Farms chairman Eoin Garden, it is business as usual.
While not seeking re-election to the board in the forthcoming election, there were still two months of his term to run, with challenges for both him and the company.
Mr Garden acknowledged it would be an emotional time when the annual meeting was held in Dunedin in December. More than anything, he would miss the people, he said.
For while he was leaving with some regrets and ''unfinished business'', he also departed with a lot of ''wonderful'' relationships that had been built up, and with vast respect for the people involved in the company.
''The great thing is I don't leave with any bitterness,'' he said.
The Millers Flat farmer joined the board of what was then known as PPCS in 1998 and was elected chairman 10 years later at a turbulent time, following the sudden dumping of Reese Hart.
He regretted that when he took on the chairman's role, farmers were dissatisfied with the level of returns and he left at a time when the ''cyclical nature'' of the industry had delivered similar returns, and further dissatisfaction, even though there had been a highly productive, albeit volatile, period in-between.
Although he had not achieved all that he would have liked to achieve, he believed it was time to go, he said.
The company had a succession plan and South Otago farmer Rob Hewett would take over as chairman following the annual meeting.
Asked if some would see standing down as taking an easy option,with the current state of the industry, he said anyone who thought that did not understand him.
''It doesn't worry me that people may take a view that I'm getting out. I'm not,'' he said.
Born and raised on a Moa Flat farm in West Otago, Mr Garden has been farming since the mid-1960s. He went into partnership with his brother, Pat, when he was 19, and he recalled how he gave away his sporting interests to focus on farming.
''We certainly had our nose to the grindstone,'' he said. That partnership was dissolved in 1989 and Avenel Station split in half.
Mr Garden was involved from ''very early times'' in representing farmers, including a long involvement with Federated Farmers to national level.
''I always had the view that rather than complain [about] what someone else was doing, or should be doing, I'd be better to try and make the difference myself,'' he said.
After more than two decades' involvement with Federated Farmers, it got to the point where he was more interested in commerce, than farmer politics.
He had to wait some time for an opportunity to stand for the board of PPCS.
In those days, when it came to an appreciation of governance and the responsibilities of governing a large business, there was a ''high level of naivety'' across the industry, compared with the responsibilities that were now understood, he said.
During his tenure, he had seen significant changes in the company's strategy, moving it from a traditional meat processing and trading company to a market-focused food company.
There had been a realisation that change was needed and it had taken a lot of determination to implement those strategic changes in a big company in the meat industry, when some questioned why there was a need for change.
Mr Garden derived ''great satisfaction'' from what the company's board had been able to achieve, including the creation of a high profile Silver Fern Farms brand which resonated both with consumers around the world and with farmers.
He also oversaw a major governance restructuring, and the transition to a new capital structure which relieved redemption risk to the co-operativeAnother highlight was the relationships with people in the business and he regretted that those relationships would not be so strong once he left.
It was a regret that the focus of the industry - which had always been volume throughput - had not been changed into creating more value, he said.
As more value was created, not only would the companies be better off but suppliers would be more affluent.
A competitive industry was needed and that could not be achieved if it was ''simply throughput driven''.
Consumers were ''absolutely the most important part'' of the total supply value creation component. Suppliers had to understand that their wealth was going to be generated by consumers prepared to pay more for the product.
A lot of farmers' wealth was gained by capital appreciation and capital gain. That had not been done on the back of the high values that could be captured from the marketplace.
''I want my successors in the industry, my successors in my farming business, to actually be able to capture that wealth I know is there.
''Then we'll be able to compete with other land uses, with other developing economies producing lamb, beef and venison,'' he said.
While part of the solution was clearly about creating more value, the other part was the engagement model with suppliers.
That had to be about having a smart strategy in procurement so assets were better utilised and suppliers were aligned to market requirements.
Committed supply was required to utilise those assets. It was not about limiting opportunities or choices to farmers, but giving them opportunities they did not have with the current model, he said.
Mr Garden was ''absolutely'' optimistic about the future of the red meat industry, saying it was a high quality, high value product and a global contraction of supply of high quality red meat had to be to New Zealand's advantage.
Provided that supply consumer relationships were modelled correctly, then he believed it was an exciting future.
''You tell me an industry that doesn't go through these phases . . . we're going through a phase which is creating a lot of challenges . . .. but we'll come out the other side far stronger,'' he said.
Opportunities for value creation had to be identified and there had to be opportunities for young people, to encourage them to be involved in the sector.
He recalled the 1980s when his contemporaries, with young families, were actively discouraging their sons from going into farming.
He was now seeing a new group of young people that did not want to go dairy farming.
There was a ''romanticism'' about working the land and livestock, in the way that it had traditionally been done.
Mr Garden's own son Austin developed and managed a dairy operation in West Otago before returning to Avenel to oversee management of the sheep, beef, venison and forestry operation.
Asked what his message to sheep farmers was, Mr Garden said it was an industry that was ''absolutely worth getting right''.
It was not going to be easy and it was going to require giving up some of those historical beliefs, in terms of the simple worth of competition.
''There's some far smarter strategies to be implemented if we really are going to be co-operative in our thinking.
''Co-operative in our thinking means we have to have a collective view outside the farm gate. Collective view means committing livestock on a 12-month basis. We are destroying value by competing as individual farmers,'' he said.
People owned businesses and had economic rights and that could not be ignored.
What had been seen in the last year was a challenge around how people valued their economic rights.
''It would have been nice to consummate a proposal and get support right across the spectrum. The reality is everybody's got different economic perspective as to where their future might lie,'' he said.
''We have come close to creating significant scale and efficiencies which could have changed many of the perverse dynamics and behaviours which are in the industry.
''In particular, the PGGW [the failed merger of PGG Wrightson and Silver Fern Farms] deal that was appropriate at the time, but which was subsequently not completed.
''In recent times when pan-industry discussions have not progressed, we have still not been able to move towards bringing the two co-operatives into a strong united entity. That is disappointing.''
One thing about co-operatives was that they would ''always be there''.
Even though individual farmers would change, farmers would always have an ownership stake, whereas ownership of the privately-owned sector of the industry would change.
The decision to stand down from the board was a big decision. Silver Fern Farms has been a major part of Mr Garden's life, particularly over the past six or seven years when it had been his ''total life''.
Mr Garden paid tribute to his family, saying part of the commitment had been possible because of his wife Noeline - whom he described as ''a rock'' - and also Austin for running the farm, knowing he could not rely on his father to help out.
''She [Noeline] has lived and breathed and been awake at nights, just like me, because of Silver Fern Farms,'' he said.
He had grown to really enjoy strategy, commerce and the intricacies of governance.
There were other things he was looking to do, which would be in the commercial field, he said.
