It's a late start with cattle movements this year due to the cracking season.
- Dustin Keys, Cloncurry Saleyards manager
Cattle movements through the Cloncurry Saleyards were late to get underway this year due to the positive season being experienced in north west Queensland.
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But it is a wonderful problem to have, according to manager Dustin Keys.
So far 157,316 head have passed through the facility since July 1 last year with cattle mainly coming from Burke and Wills and southern areas.
Mr Keys said it was still to wet for Gulf cattle to start coming through the yards, particularly from the Burketown district.
"From the start of the year we would have put 15,000 head through the yards, with the majority heading to growing out country and feedlots in the south," he said.
The easing of feedlot prices has been noticeable through the yards with a reinjection of optimism and competition for live export cattle.
"It has really ramped up over the past three weeks with feeder cattle passing through bound for Darwin, heading to Indonesia," Mr Keys said.
"It is really good to see the boat trade competitive again, as it was being knocked around by the feedlot quotes in the past couple of years.
"The trade is very important to producers up here, and it is definitely a market we don't want to lose.
"So far 5000 head have passed through to the Port of Darwin, with vendors paying the transport to here, and the live exporters pick up the freight for them from here."
Mr Keys and his brother Nathan have been managing the facility since 2016 and witnessed a range of seasonal impacts in that time.
"We have seen it all with droughted cattle coming through, to the quality livestock produced while the seasons have been unbelievable," he said.
The council owned saleyards are the second largest cattle handling facility in Queensland, with the capacity to hold up to 20,000 head of cattle. They recently underwent upgrades to improve safety and usability.
There are two facilities with the clean yards for tick free stock only, while the main activity is at the dirty yards, which clears the cattle to move into free areas.
In the financial year of 2021-22 a total of 266,001 head passed through the facility, with the biggest throughput recorded in the year of 2019-20 when 286,043 head used the yards.
Helen Walker
Helen is the Toowoomba-based journalist who loves nothing better than covering anything horse sport related, however she covers all commodities and personality yarns. Over the years she has lived in Brisbane, Rockhampton, Longreach and Roma filing stories for the 'bible of the bush'. Contact 0459 827414.
Helen is the Toowoomba-based journalist who loves nothing better than covering anything horse sport related, however she covers all commodities and personality yarns. Over the years she has lived in Brisbane, Rockhampton, Longreach and Roma filing stories for the 'bible of the bush'. Contact 0459 827414.
