Rain closed abattoir
Just as good rains help finish cattle off, so too did they finish Greenham’s Tongala abattoir.
When the company announced in early February that its Tongala site would no longer process cattle, those in the know weren’t shocked.
The closure axed 65 jobs, but 86 staff remain to operate other business at the site.
Livestock agents said the killing blow was the good rains.
After nearly three years of drought, the grass-delivering and water price-lowering rains meant farmers weren’t sending their cattle off to slaughter.
Mulcahy Nelson Livestock agent Sam Nelson said a lot of people had spent years destocking and, once widespread rain hit, the pain at the abattoirs was inevitable.
“There just aren’t enough cows around for the site to run,” Mr Nelson said.
“It’s a supply game, not a demand one, and there simply isn’t any supply.”
The Tongala site has been battling dwindling cattle supply for years thanks to the exiting of dairy farmers from the region.
“Greenham is getting some negative press at the moment which they don’t really deserve,” Mr Nelson said.
“I know they are trying their best to pivot the business and keep going, which requires a considerable amount of money.”
When asked if COVID-19 had hastened the closure of the cow processing line, Mr Nelson said he ‘‘doubted it’’.
“I don’t think COVID had any effect on anything in the meat industry,” he said.
Regional Victorian meatworks spent a month in late 2020 capped at 66 per cent production.
At the time HW Greenham and Son’s group general manager Tom Maguire told Country News the staff caps mattered little to the Tongala site.
“It doesn’t impact on us at Tongala, we recently scaled back operations to match seasonal conditions and are at about 50 per cent capacity,” Mr Maguire said then.
In a letter from Greenham management to suppliers, the decision to close part of the Tongala site was explained as being based on low cattle supply.
Forecasts have been warning of record low cattle supply for the next two years.
Stock agent Lawrie Flanagan said he remembered when 70 to 100 choppers — mostly dairy breeds — went to the Tongala site every day from the Shepparton saleyards.
“Now you hardly get any,” Mr Flanagan said.
He had also heard Greenham was planning to redirect the business and wasn’t giving up on Tongala yet.
Greenham has been contacted for comment.