The Western Australian Meat Industry Authority (WAMIA) has cancelled its sheep and cattle sales at the Muchea Livestock Centre next week, raising animal welfare concerns for livestock producers hit hard by tough conditions.
Usually when a public holiday falls on Monday, the livestock centre will instead hold a combined sheep and cattle sale on the Tuesday.
This however is not the case for Easter long weekend, with WAMIA acting chief executive officer I-Lyn Loo saying low numbers made running the sale financially unviable.
Nairns Livestock Service owner David Nairn runs a wheat and sheep farm at Koorda and is responsible for the receiving, drafting and penning of the sheep sale.
Mr Nairn said it was a bad time to be cancelling livestock sales, particularly as a large number of farmers across WA were running out of feed and water.
"It has been a very dry season and there hasn't been much improvement on that," he said.
"As such, a lot of the sheep and cattle are no longer in prime condition for processing.
"Muchea is the only place they can be offloaded, where someone else can take them on and fatten them up.
"Sales aren't cancelled after other Monday public holidays, so why this one?"
Mr Nairn said producers would be forced to hold onto livestock at a time when oats, lupins and hay were expensive or difficult to source.
Acknowledging every situation was different, he said feeding for an extra week would probably cost more than a sheep is worth.
"Take a look at what is going on in the industry right now, do they understand why people send sheep to Muchea?
"Kill spots in abattoirs are booked up, so those who haven't been able to get their livestock booked in have been holding on as long as they can before selling them.
"They are being left with no option here.
"Sheep aren't making a lot of money as it is, not going ahead with this sale is actually putting a lot of pressure on the industry."
Mr Nairn said it was also difficult to book space with livestock carriers, as this time of year was when trucks were usually diverted.
That is because they are busy carting fertiliser, lime sand, gypsum and sheep over east or to port for live export.
"Some people may be contracted for three weeks for a particular date, but cannot get a truck to cart them," he said.
"Just because you want to send your livestock down to the saleyards, doesn't mean you can actually do it.
"Quite often we can't get our sheep to market on the days we want."
Mr Nairn raised further concerns that local butchers, who rely on Muchea and aren't able to source sheep and cattle privately, would miss out.
He said people directly and indirectly employed by the saleyards would also be affected by not receiving an income in that week.
Ms Loo said the last time WAMIA had a Tuesday sale after the Easter long weekend was in 2021.
She said livestock numbers for the week after Easter weekend in that year, and those beforehand were low - typically 50 per cent of the numbers presented in the week prior.
"With most livestock delivered to Muchea Livestock Centre on the Monday public holiday, the low numbers make it financially unviable for us to run the sales.
"When the order of sale was published on our website at the start of this year, Tuesday, April 2 was not a scheduled sale day.
"We discussed this at our regular agents meeting in February, with varying views expressed, and continued to monitor the situation and numbers for the first two sales in March, before the notification was sent on March 13, reminding users that no sales are scheduled for Tuesday, April 2."
Mr Nairn said low sale numbers may not be the trend every year and plans needed to be made accordingly.
He said strong numbers had been coming through the yards each week and there was no reason to cancel the sale.
"The trend is that farmers don't send as much livestock in because they might be on holidays because of the long weekend," Mr Nairn said.
"Sometimes that is the case, but not always.
"At the moment we are yarding up to 10,000 sheep per week - I would understand the decision if we were putting through less than that and it wasn't viable.
"My sources have said only three WAMIA staff were requested for the cattle sale to go ahead on the Tuesday after Easter, however that request was declined."
Mr Nairn realised under policy Muchea had the right to cancel any sale, but said the service provider also had to be considered.
He said he was "sick and tired" of not being listened to.
Ms Loo said WAMIA was aware of the situation relating to climate conditions, which was why they provided advance notification so producers could plan their livestock needs and movements.
She reminded industry sales were held the week before on March 25-26, and the week starting Monday, April 8.
"Changing the situation so close to next Tuesday now would likely cause confusion and could impact plans that may have been put in place by various parties involved in livestock sales at Muchea."
