And most of that time they have kept their heads down, instructing lawyers and managers to do the talking.
However, this week Mr Cochrane had a thing or two to say to the ODT about the latest issue with fishing huts on station property.
And, he made it clear, Tony Glassford is top of the list of hut users no longer welcome.
''If he thinks he can put pressure on Hunter Valley, he'd better think again, because he has taken himself right out of any further involvement in this area.
''Because of Glassford's attitude and what he's saying behind the scene, he will not be welcome back on Hunter Valley.
''Simple as that.''
Mr Cochrane said Mr Glassford was ''out of line big time'' over his claims to the hut put in the valley by Mr Glassford's grandfather 90 years ago.
Mr Cochrane said a verbal agreement was reached when he bought the station in 1976 that when Mr Glassford's father, Owen, died, the family's ownership of the hut would terminate.
The agreement, he said, was made at the insistence of the Lands and Survey Department, because there was no title to the huts.
''Back in 1976, they wanted us to terminate the ownership of all those huts.''
Mr Cochrane said the only mistake the station made was allowing the Glassford family to remain after Owen Glassford died in 1997.
Other hut owners on station land acknowledged similar arrangements, he said.
Mr Cochrane considered the station owned the Glassford hut, because of the lack of title, but he had allowed Mr Glassford and other hut users to remove the buildings.
''If he thought he owned the building he was given the opportunity to remove it, and he chose not to.
''We had another so-called owner of another hut up there; she went to another hut and stripped all the assets out of it that she had no right to even go near.''
He denied he would be renting the huts out.
''We will probably remove them.''
However, they would be used in the meantime, he said.
Mr Glassford responded that he had a 1962 document from the Commissioner of Crown Lands showing his father owned the hut and his father ''never spoke a word to anyone about giving Cochranes ownership of the hut''.
He did not believe there was a verbal agreement.
