Trial changes to the format of Tuesday’s Fat Cattle sale at Scone Saleyards have proved encouraging, but more feedback is needed from saleyard users before the changes will be formally adopted.
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Upper Hunter Shire Council saleyard operations manager Steve Kemp said council were trialling two format changes to streamline the flow of the sale and make it easier on cattle and buyers.
“The original selling format at Tuesday’s Fat Cattle sale was to run the bulls and suspect cattle first followed by trade cattle and export cattle last.
“The problem with this was export cattle buyers that were there at the start of the sale for bulls had to stay until the end of the sale for the export cattle, creating a lot of downtime for export buyers.
“We are currently trialling moving the format to bulls first, export cattle second followed by the trade cattle.”
Mr Kemp said the other change was to the start time of the Tuesday sale to improve animal welfare and make it easier for abattoir planning.
“Starting earlier makes it easier on the older cattle as they aren’t stuck in the yards through the heat of the day and should run better as they will be in their receiving yards earlier.
“Abattoirs also wanted to know cattle numbers earlier in the day so they could plan their kill so we have changed the sale start time from 8.30am to 7.30am.”
Mr Kemp said the three week trial was expected to be continued into the New Year to allow time for more saleyard user feedback.
“We gave questionnaires to producers, agents and buyers that use the saleyards to find out whether they are happy with the changes.
“We need as much feedback as possible so we can work out whether to keep the new format or not,” Mr Kemp said.
Feedback and questionnaire responses can be forwarded to Upper Hunter Shire technical support services manager Coleen Pinkerton on 6540 1109 or email cpinkerton@upperhun ter.nsw.gov.au.
