SELX to open in August

AGRICULTURE: Work on the $14 million South Eastern Livestock Exchange is on schedule for an August opening.

Yass Saleyards Director Brendan Abbey said an additional 15 to 20 staff would be on site next week working to complete the sheep yards.

He said the project was about 70 per cent complete, after a late start due to delays in approval processes.

“The civil works are about 95 per cent complete, we’ve still got to do two-coat bitumen seal on the roads and the car park… As for the rest of it, the cattle roof is complete, the sheep yard roof is [almost there], the cattle yards are about 40 per cent complete, and the sheep yards will commence construction next week,” he told Scoop.

“We are still on track for a mid August completion.”

The exchange will have holding pens for 3800 cattle and 30,000 sheep, and is expected to see 1.2 million sheep and 120,000 head of cattle through its gates annually when it becomes established.

It will also have remote bidding capabilities.

Brendan Abbey with wife Rowena Abbey on their property.

“Going forward, the facility will be able to have video streaming live auctions, probably within the next 12 months.”

People will be able to bid from their phones or computers while watching a video of the sale.

The exchange is located at the junction of four highways, on Mr Abbey’s property Bellevale, near the Yass Service Centre.

“There will be weekly cattle sales, weekly sheep sales, monthly store cattle sales and autumn and spring special store sheep sales,” he said.

Store sales are for restocking farms.

“Weekly fat sales are the ones where the supermarkets get their supplies out of, and the abattoirs.”

He and fellow developers Rohan Arnold and Colin Medway have 13 livestock agents committed to sell out of the facility, including agents from Boorowa, Crookwell, Goulburn, Moss Vale, Queanbeyan, Braidwood, Cooma, Yass, Gundagai, Cootamundra and Young.

He would not be pressed on how the multi-million dollar exchange would affect the viability of smaller saleyards in outlying areas.

However, it has been widely reported the project could see the demise of smaller council-owned yards with their ageing infrastructure and less pull power within the marketplace.

Construction is on schedule for an August launch of the South East Livestock Exchange, on Brendan Abbey’s farm near the Service Centre.