Chute gate closes on long career

It will also give Marjory a break from her years of unpaid secretarial duties as she was generally the person fielding all the phone calls, from 1970 to 2011, from those requiring Jon's brand inspection services, often at odd hours or inconvenient times, day and night.

Quite often during calving time on their own ranch, Marjory was literally left "holding the bag" when Jon was called out unexpectedly to brand inspect some cattle elsewhere.

Jon offered some thoughts at the conclusion of the presentation: "It was a long career with many varied and interesting days, as well as some long, tiring tedious days but it was the people that I dealt with that made the job what it was.

"They were probably the reason that I stayed so long; most ranchers (cattle producers) are 100 per cent  genuine, down-to-earth, friendly folks who I enjoyed being in contact with.

"Many, with whom I became acquainted with over many years of annual brand inspection trips to their ranch, have now become personal friends. So it was a great run, mainly because of the people. That includes many fellow brand-inspectors and auction yard staff-members. I'd like to thank everyone here, on behalf of myself and my wife Marjory."

The ranching community will miss this knowledgeable cattleman. He was the right type of person in a position where an individual's temperament and cattle knowledge (the quirks of bovine behaviour) can make all the difference between a smoothly handled cattle count and inspection, or alternatively, a disruption where the cattle are seriously riled up by over-handling or unwelcome human intrusion at all the wrong junctures.

Jon's boots (gumboots — insulated Mucks or Bogs these days because cattle pens are not normally dry or poop-free) won't be easily filled.