Blackall livestock agent disagrees with council plan to put money into repairing disused sheep saleyards

Mayor Andrew Martin, who runs both sheep and cattle on his Tambo property, said given the upsurge in the wool industry in the central west and parts of the South West NRM region, the possibility of sheep sales had become real again.

“We’ve got an extensive asset there, that we’re not going to let fall down, and there’s been a bit of interest from various quarters for sheep sales,” he said. “If I can couple that with half decent internet, we can broadcast sales around the world.”

Spending time at large sheep selling complexes at Narromine and Warwick had shown him there was an appetite for live sales, he said.

Blackall Ray White Livestock manager, Paton FitzSimons said he and other members of the Blackall Livestock Agents Association believed sheep saleyards were a thing of the past in Queensland, and they would like to see all available money channelled into even more improvements at the cattle selling complex across the road.

“Things like AuctionsPlus weren’t around when those (sheepyards) were built, and there are different ways of selling sheep these days,” he said.

“I know it sounds like I’m contradicting myself when there are similar options for cattle, but I believe there’s always going to be a position for saleyards in the cattle game.

“There’s not similar markets for sheep; there’s not a viable sheep feedlot out there.”

The latest figures available from the weekly Warwick sheep sale, from November 23 last year, when 2032 lambs and hoggets were yarded, along with 1012 grown sheep, saw the top-priced lambs bring $156.

The Blackall yards haven’t been used for sales since 2000, and Paton said sheep sales hadn’t been mentioned once to him in the 12 years that he’s operated in the Blackall district.

“Down the track I think we’ll see some again, but we’ll be putting them on on-property and interface with AuctionsPlus.

Cr Martin said they were never going to find out if there was a market for sheep sales in Blackall unless they tried it out.

“You don’t have to spend a lot there, and there’s some good infrastructure grants around.”

Over the last 10 years, three Blackall-Tambo councils have put a total of $2.7 million into upgrades at the cattle complex as the facility has become the third-largest selling and spelling centre in Queensland.

The agents association would now like to see money spent on a full deck weighbridge, along with an overhaul of the office and scales area, and more selling pens.

“We’re attracting bigger runs of cattle now, especially for our weaner sales, and the weighbridge would mean cattle could be off feed for less time, which is good for producers,” Paton said.

He said there was confidence around that numbers would increase this season and next, hence the need for more sale pens.

“Council has chipped away here, section by section, which has been greatly appreciated,” he said as he urged current decision-makers not to stop there.

Cr Martin said he and his councillors and staff were well aware that geographically, logistically and infrastructure-wise, Blackall offered an ideal location for both processors and producers.

“We’re a neat day’s run to killing facilities and a neat day’s run to catchment areas,” he said.

Commenting on Longreach’s recently announced desire to lease out its saleyards, which have been dormant for three years, and hopes to begin selling again in April or May, Cr Martin said it had been so long since they’d had a sale, he couldn’t really make a comment about their plans.

“I wish them all the best,” he said. “When cattle numbers rebuild, Longreach will be a great help to us because we might not handle the throughput at Blackall on our own.”