On Wednesday, March 6, the doors of Harden Chaff mill and Stockfeeds closed its doors for the last time.
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John Lanyon commenced running the Harden Chaff Mill Stockfeeds site at the end of 1996, taking over from Tim Boyd.
"I grew up in the Mallee area of northern Victoria and always had an interest in horses and nutrition." Mr Lanyon said.
"I moved to the New England area and studied Agricultural Economics."
Mr Lanyon said that when he took over the business in 1996, the local market could not be relied upon to sustain the business.
"Hay was plentiful in those days, but I was travelling backwards and forwards from Sydney, in areas like Terrey Hills and Windsor, where the racing industry was reliant on imported feed and nutrition was not a main focus."
"I found that in these areas, sporting and pleasure horse owners were more interested in the best nutrition for their horses, and we came up with a mixture of Lucerne, chaff and canola oil for energy, which proved very popular with this market." Mr Lanyon said.
"Markets developed in both Sydney and Canberra, and we were able to build strong relationships with animal owners, who asked for our advice when it came to nutrition for their animals."
"'Hunger Buster' was responsible for 70 to 80 percent of our sales,outside of the area, to places like Griffith, Hay and Cowra areas. most of our product was sold It was never a huge business, but it was one I could manage."
Mr Lanyon decided to close the business after an accident 18 months ago left him with 3 fractured vertebrae.
"It was a very tight year for hay because of the drought, it was just time. I have let the supplies run down over the last six months and I closed the doors on Wednesday afternoon." Mr Lanyon said.
" I have enjoyed my time in Harden, it has a lot of expertise amongst business owners and the town has a lot going for it."