Company directors
Meet Ian Wickham & Tony Burn
THE DIRECTORS
Ian Wickham founded New Zealand Grazing Company in 1987 over 30 years ago. The company has managed close to one million young cattle and has provided the standard that others aspire to. Ian is delighted to continue to be associated with New Zealand Grazing in a senior capacity as he witnesses the very sound management of our staff being made available to help all farmers find the smarter way to grow profitable heifers.
Ian Wickham – Owner/Director
Growing up on a dairy farm shaped my future in farming and leadership. At 15, after my father was severely injured by a Jersey herd sire, I took over management of our 50-cow herd — immediately selling the bulls and adopting artificial insemination.
My career has blended practical farming with service to other farmers, driven by innovation and entrepreneurship. Along the way, I developed skills in dairy herd management, aviation, commercial strawberry growing, and as an AI Technician. Through Young Farmers, I became deeply involved in leadership, public speaking, and debating — experiences that later supported my role as Taranaki Manager and Director of Ambreed (now CRV Ambreed). As an Instructor and Examiner, I trained around 600 AI Technicians to approved standards.
An early adopter of new technology — from calculators and Apple computers to smartphones and one of New Zealand’s first Tesla EVs — I have always embraced smarter ways of working.
In the early 1980s, I recognised that dairy replacements were both underfed and inefficiently managed, limiting their genetic potential and profitability. Rather than write a thesis, I applied practical solutions and founded New Zealand Grazing Company Ltd in 1987. Since then, the company has managed nearly one million young cattle, developing systems and SOPs that set industry benchmarks for performance and profitability.
Today, I remain actively involved in New Zealand Grazing Company, proud to see our systems helping farmers grow profitable heifers more effectively.
My wife Jacqui and I have been married for 55 years. We have four adult children, eleven grandchildren, and continue to live on our 1,000-acre family farm.
Antony (Tony) R Burn – Director
I am a Fellow Chartered Accountant and have been involved with the company since 1990 at which time I met Ian as he was buying out former shareholders. I continued to be an accounting advisor for Ian Wickham and joined his company as a director in 1999.
I had been in practice as a chartered accountant since 1973 in my own practice and then merging that with the New Plymouth practice of Coopers and Lybrand in 1990. At the time I signalled that I would leave public practice in around 8 years and did so in 1998 resigning from the firm which was then PricewaterhouseCoopers.
I worked extensively with clients giving management and financial advisory services to regular clients. I also worked extensively in the insolvency area and in business valuations.
After leaving public practice I continued with business valuation work and became a director of several companies and a trustee of charitable trusts. These included work in several sectors both in commercial and non-profit organisations. These include health, aged care, engineering, service industries and consulting, forestry and manufacturing.
While practicing I also contributed to the representation of membership interests and leadership of my professional accounting body, presently known as Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. I was President of this body in 1991/1992 and was awarded a life membership in 2013.
