"It was a pretty rough time for all and especially stock and station companies."
In fact, it was a real dizzy-go-round with mergers and downsizing the order of the day.
Mr Ellen arrived in Whanganui in 1977 with Dalgety's stock and station company with its livestock agents competing with rivals Wrightson NMA, Newton King and FCDC at the then busy Fordell saleyards.
Of course, stock and station companies in those days were a one-stop shop for rural folk catering for a wide range of needs from finance, real estate, merchandise, arable requirements including grass seeds and advice and livestock sales and purchases.
In today's marketplace they still operate as one-stop shops, it's just there are a lot less of them.
In the early 1980s Newton King and FCDC merged to eventually become Crown and in 1983 Dalgety and Crown hooked up to become Dalgety Crown. In 1986 Wrightson took over Dalgety Crown.
"Well they took over Dalgety Crown except in five areas the Commerce Commission turned down, including Whanganui. Elders finally bought that entity out," Mr Ellen said.
"Williams and Kettle also arrived from the East Coast in 1992 and I was appointed regional manager, so that left just W&K, Wrightson and Elders operating in Whanganui and surrounds.
"Since then, around 2005, W&K was absorbed into Wrightson and Elders moved on and now doesn't have a presence in Whanganui."
The arrival of South Island company Pyne Gould Guinness (PGG) heralded the new era. PGG merged with Wrightson and now the only stock and station company offering the full one-stop shop service in Whanganui is PGG Wrightson.
Mr Ellen said it was a tumultuous time with all those mergers going on and of course people were lost to the industry in the name of rationalisation. That same rationalisation spelled the end of stock sales at many of the smaller, local yards.
Raetihi is the latest to close following the closure of Hunterville, Taihape, Waverley, Marton, Eketahuna and Pahiatua. Some sales are still held at the likes of Dannevirke and Stratford.
The sales have been centralised to probably four main North Island centres, including Feilding, Stortford Lodge in Napier, Frankton in Hamilton and Gisborne where they still operate sale by eye, rather than the scale systems employed at the other main yards.
From 2003 to 2008 Mr Ellen was chairman of the Feilding saleyards before his retirement in 2008.
It was under his watch the technology farmers enjoy at the Manawatu venue today began to be installed.
"The platform sales and weight selling began in my time there. Most of the smaller yards needed money spent on them and the owners, mainly PGG Wrightson, wasn't prepared to outlay money preferring to invest in centralised yards like Feilding," Mr Ellen said.
One of several to survive the dizzy-go-round of the 1980s and 1990s was livestock agent Harvey Falloon. He is now one of a handful of senior livestock agents working for PGG Wrightson.
Mr Falloon was also one of several to follow Mr Ellen through the merger maize.
"It was definitely tough times back then," Mr Falloon said.
"There was probably a lot more loyalty between farmers, their agents and the companies than there is today. There is also a lot less agents, probably about half the number today.
The markets are fantastic at the moment, but you need to remember it's come off the back of lean times.
"Farming has also changed dramatically. It's very different these days with land use changing. First there was the change to dairying, then trees and now even bees," Mr Falloon said.
Many in the game tried to halt the closure of the smaller saleyards too, but in the end it was futile.
