Road trains from the Northern Territory will be busy on the Barkly and Landsborough Highways this week, bringing 4500 cattle down for the postponed relaunch of cattle sales at the redeveloped complex at Longreach.
The sale was originally set down for May 11 but was put off in the face of record-breaking rain around Queensland's central west.
Nutrien Livestock, based in Longreach, has been working with West Coast Northern Livestock to put together large lines of predominantly young cattle for southern buyers for the June 3 sale.
It was originally scheduled for Wednesday, June 1 but Nutrien spokesman Boyd Curran said they decided it would be best to sell after Blackall's regular Thursday sale.
"Everyone was disappointed that the first sale was postponed but the timing's going to be right - there's magnificent rain and grass growing, and people are in the mood to restock," he said.
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The cattle have been sourced from numerous vendors ranging from Darwin, Borroloola, Katherine and Daly Waters regions, and over to the Western Australia border.
West Coast spokesman Jack Maloney said the majority of the 4500 head were very young cattle, either from the first round muster this year or late second round 2021 cattle, along with cows pregnancy tested in calf.
"A few properties have had dry times and they're backing the herd off a bit," he said.
"Normally they'd be sold privately to restockers or on the boat, but we sold some cattle at Roma six weeks ago, through Nutrien, and we were happy with that job, so we thought, let's have a crack.
"With the rain around Longreach we probably couldn't have timed it any better."
Mr Maloney said it had been a big five days drafting all the cattle up but they were now in various dip yards ready for the trip south.
Mr Curran said he'd been a big supporter of the Longreach saleyard redevelopment, saying it gave western Queensland vendors a point of difference to other yards.
"I believe AAM has invested heavily in it and I feel any organisation willing to put that much in deserves as much support as we can give them," he said. "We felt that 4500 head was a good number for the first yarding."
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According to Gavin Tickle, AAM Investment Group's Queensland regional operations manager, they were putting the finishing touches on the complex by way of turfing and landscaping, and were planning a trial run this week.
"That will give us a week to address any issues that arise," he said. "But preparations are coming along well and the site and staff are ready to go."
Mr Maloney said that at this stage all vendors were planning to travel down from the NT for the sale and were expecting the cattle to present very well.
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Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications.
