Mount Gambier and District Saleyards manager David Wallis sees his new role as a chance to get back to his farming grassroots.
His diverse resume includes working on Stage 1 of the Lake Bonney Windfarm installing, commissioning and maintaining the turbines with Vestas before becoming site manager.
He also spent seven years as maintenance manager at Thompson Drilling in Millicent.
For the past 18 months he has been project manager with Wattle Range Council but he was raised on a property at Wattle Range, near Penola, where his two elder brothers still farm.
Mr Wallis - a qualified fitter and turner and welder - is looking forward to his new challenge.
"I have always had an affinity with agriculture and lots of my friends are involved with the farming community," he said.
"We have a couple of hundred acres running beef breeding stock and I'd always been keen to go farming but the price of land has stopped that - the saleyards is a a chance to combine a bit of ag."
"It is going to be great to work with the systems already in place and then look at the experience I've had as a site manager and project manager to see what else we can achieve."
It has been a big financial year for the Grant District Council-owned saleyards with more than $122 million worth of livestock sold in 2019-2020- $31m more than 2018-19.
The 164 sales saw close to 80,000 cattle and 110,000 sheep yarded.
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