Vin’s pig industry career ends after 50-plus years

But after starting his livestock career with Elders in 1963, Vin took a different path.

“I grew up just out of Angaston and my dad Arthur was a shearer,” he said.

“My interest was always in wool classing, and I joined Elders to chase that interest.”

As a junior with Elders, Vin had the chance to work in different areas of agriculture.

“After working at the wool stores for six months, I did a spell at the Gepps Cross market as a clerk, and after that experience, it became my number one interest,” he said.

“Before I turned 20 I had started auctioneering calves at Gepps Cross.

“I auctioneered calves for a couple of years before I started selling pigs.”

Back in the 1960s the weekly pig yarding was 5500.

“Our record pig yarding at Gepps Cross was 8000,” Vin said.

He was shifted to Angaston by Elders in 1966, where a major task the company set him was establishing a pig market between Nuriootpa and Angaston. 

He was based in the Barossa Valley for two years before being transferred back to Adelaide, and eventually left Elders in 1968.

Vin was then a buyer for Jacobs, a smallgoods company based at Mount Barker, for the next three years.

“Back then, I used to fly to the Eyre Peninsula regularly to buy pigs,” he said.

Vin joined the House of Lindner in 1971 after being approached to join the company by the late Don Lindner.

“Don made me a very good offer, so I went back to pig auctioneering,” he said.

Vin’s first stint with House of Lindner lasted until 1980, when he got into the farming game and built a piggery at Wild Horse Plains.

He started the piggery with 110 sows, which he later grew to 300. His aim was to turn off 100 pigs a week.

“For the first 12 months at the piggery, because I was by myself, I had to be there every day,” Vin said.

“By the time I got holidays, I had three full-time employees. It was then that I started travelling, because when you live at the piggery, you can’t really holiday at home.”

After almost a decade at the piggery, Vin’s second stint with House of Lindner came about after Don Lindner was involved in a bad car accident in the late 1980s.

Vin helped out by taking on the auctioneer role again, and this time he stayed on. 

He was the last person to sell a pig at the Gepps Cross market and the first to sell a pig at Dublin.

“That was purely by luck, we just happened to draw the last sale at Gepps Cross so I sold first pen the following week at Dublin,” he said.

One of Vin’s highlights of his time with House of Lindner was working alongside colleague Rene Martucci for many years.

“We always said we were a team, and we always worked well together, in the interest of our clients,” he said.

He has also loved working with pigs through the years.

“They’re just one of the most interesting animals, and they’re smart,” he said.

“If a pig learns how to open a gate you won’t keep it in.”

ACROSS his 50-plus years in the pig industry, Vin Argent said there had been incredible gains made through the use of quality genetics and feed.

“In my early days in the industry, a baconer weighed 60 kilograms, and you’d get it to that weight at between 27 and 28 weeks,” he said. “Today, a baconer weighs 80kg, and you’re getting to that weight at 17 to 18 weeks.”

Vin said during his time in the industry there had been a huge change in the number of pig farmers.

“Years ago, in the Balaklava area, there would have been 70 to 80 farmers running pigs, now there’s about three,” he said.

“There’s been a shift to very large piggeries, with places like Rivalea and Sunpork producing thousands of pigs a week.”

Another major change was in the annual stud pig auction at the Royal Adelaide Show, which used to go for two days and is now run on an afternoon.

“When I first started in the 1960s, it was a two-day sale,” he said. “It would go from nine or 10 in the morning until 4pm.

“We’d do white pigs on one day and Berkshires and other coloured breeds the other day.”

Vin said he always enjoyed the focus on animal health in the pig industry.

“When I first started working, I had an idea that one day I might become a veterinarian, but at the time, you had to go interstate to study,” he said. “I was always interested in animal health and that was one of the aspects I’ve enjoyed about working with pigs, optimising their health so you get the most out of them.”