The battle between South-West saleyards for livestock numbers is intensifying with the new Western Victoria Livestock Exchange (WVLX) at Mortlake set to embark on initiatives to attract more sales of dairy cattle.
WVLX spokesperson Brendan Abbey said he was concerned the new saleyards was not selling many “chopper cows”, and it was working on a few initiatives to attract more sales of that type of cattle.
Mr Abbey said he was pleased with the number of beef cattle being sold through the new saleyards.
WVLX’s campaign comes after Regional Livestock Exchanges, part of the AAM Investment Group, took up a 15-year lease, with options to extend, on the Camperdown Saleyards.
AAM Investment Group managing director Garry Edwards said it would use the Camperdown Saleyards to “service a niche within the dairy industry”.
AAM Investment Group will next month open new saleyards near Ballarat but Mr Edwards said it had “identified there is a niche in the supply chain in the extensive dairy herd located south of the Princes Highway that is unlikely to make its way to Ballarat”.
Mr Abbey said his company aimed to buy out the 44 per cent stake held by Rohan Arnold in the Mortlake Saleyards’ parent company.
Mr Arnold, a director of the company that also owns saleyards at Yass, NSW, has been extradited from Serbia and charged with five offences including importing and attempting to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.
He was arrested in Serbia in January in connection with a 1.28 tonne shipment of cocaine, worth about $500 million, that was smuggled into Australia inside pre-fabricated steel on a Chinese container ship.
Mr Arnold managed the construction of the Mortlake Saleyards last year.
Mr Abbey said the company’s existing shareholders aimed to buy Mr Arnold’s stake by the end of this month.
Mr Abbey confirmed his company was involved in a proposal to build new saleyards at Warragul to replace existing saleyards.
