North-west Tasmanian farmers back Wesley Vale saleyards

The conclusion of a saleyard survey found potential sheep, cattle and pig numbers approached those previously handled at the old Quoiba yards.

North-West Saleyards Developments committee chair Mike Badcock said 12,500 head of cattle, 25,000 sheep and 600 pigs could go through the Mill Park site.

There were 220 replies in favour of the Mill Park site and 25 for an alternative at Minna Road, Stowport.

"This equates to stock sales, each year, to gross $23m or Wesley Vale and $4.25m for Minna Road," Mr Badcock said.

Read more: North West Community Market committee to decide between two sites for new saleyard

Mr Badcock said the committee would now proceed to develop a business case for the potential $1.5m development.

"Discussions are continuing with the owners of the Mill Park Wesley Vale site, as well as the Latrobe Council, regarding a suitable entity to be developed, possibly in the form of a unit trust and or co-operative to enable ownership across the users of the facility," he said.

"It gives us a bit of confidence.

"There is a lot of despondency among farmers out there, particularly among smaller operators - I don't think the big end of town realises how the north-west coast of Tassie operates."

The region had a lot of smaller farmers, with very high-quality cattle, who had nowhere to go since the closure of Quoiba.

"The politicians have been really wanting to have some figures, so hopefully they have something in the background for us," he said.

The figures supplied by farmers justified the expenditure of $1.5m on the saleyards.

'We probably won't try and build a Taj Mahal, at the beginning, we will build something that is adequate, with the idea of expanding as the need arises," he said.

He said the Latrobe council was supportive and the site had the right zoning, so it was hoped to start work on the business case as soon as possible.