Colac has slow reboot of Monday sheep sales
COLAC Saleyards’ first Monday sheep sale in 15 years has been held in the wake of the closure of Geelong’s facility.
While it has not yet been announced how many of the 40 sheep available were sold this week, 945 sheep were sold at the final Geelong sale on August 21.
The sales are scheduled to occur fortnightly but Victorian Farmers Federation Bellarine branch secretary Fiona Conroy said the “poor” number of sheep available on Monday could deter buyers from attending in the future.
“The results from this sheep sale will not instil confidence in any sheep producer or buyer to support these saleyards,” Conroy said in a formal statement. “This is a pretty poor effort given the last Geelong sale was weeks ago and we are in the middle of prime lamb season.”
Conroy said the move from Geelong to Colac would fail to meet the needs of Geelong’s semirural farmers due to its rural location and its lack of establishment as a sheep market.
“The bottom line is that at this time of year the Geelong Saleyards were attracting close to 1000 sheep, and so I think these results only reinforce fears that Colac will not be a viable sheep market.”
Colac Regional Salesyard was contacted for comment.