After 58 years servicing farms through firstly a sheep dipping business and then adding an agricultural spraying operation, Mr Ludemann (74) has finally retired.
Not that it was a particularly easy decision after so many years, beginning in 1968 when his late father Harry, a farmer at Fuchsia Creek, inland from Oamaru, bought the first dip.
The eldest of seven, David left school and began working, which also included stints shearing.
Originally, the sheep dipping business covered just North Otago and Palmerston but the impact of drought, Rogernomics and dairy conversions in the 1980s saw him head to the Maniototo for additional work.
That started at the beginning of December and finished at the end of March and ended up being more than 50% of the business’s work.
He enjoyed the contact with clients — some were now third generation — the good food and hospitality and yearly catch-ups, as well as good support from chemical companies and the technical field officers at the stock firms.
On the best day ever, about 8500 ewes and lambs were dipped while the peak was about 400,000 for the season.
In the early 2000s, the Ludemanns bought a spraying business, needing a "little bit of something else", and that operation covered North Otago and over the Waitaki Bridge to Ikawai.
The dips were sold four years ago while Craig Wilson, from Multi Ag, in Waimate, was taking over Mr Ludemann’s spraying clients so he was pleased they would continue to be serviced.
Mr Ludemann expected to miss the people, quipping he would miss out on the gossip, but he and his wife were looking forward to more time together, including on their e-bikes.
He had been used to very early mornings, often up at 4.30am and away before 6am to spray paddocks — and home by 9am if the wind was blowing.
While Mrs Ludemann said her husband thought nothing of it and would never admit it, he had an admirable work ethic which had been inherited by their sons. It was always six-days-a-week work, and long days and he had "just never known anything of it", she said.
