The multi-million dollar livestock selling centre at Casino, NSW, will open its doors to public buying for the first time in seven months next Friday, February 2.
Armidale-based Outcross Agri-Services have signed a five-year agreement with Richmond Valley Council that includes an option to lease again for the same amount of time.
Agency George and Fuhrmann will offer 1500 to 2000 head of store cattle into a market laced with optimism, given the recent Queensland rains.
Prices to the producers will go up with president of the Casino Auctioneers Association Andrew Summerville confirming that fees will rise by 5pc, allowing for last year's increase in the Consumer Price Index.
In addition there will be a scanning fee of $1.18.
"This is a well-timed outcome as many producers sell lines of calves in the first six months of the year, and it will allow feature sales to progress as normal," Mr Summerville said.
Managing director of Outcross Agri-Services, Tom Newsome, part of an extended tablelands cattle family, highlighted the fact that fees charged to agents will be less than current inflation and frozen at that level for 17 months.
Last November's CPI reading was 4.6pc and falling.
"It's a marginal increase," he said. "The structure is the same.
"We have set fees as reasonably as possible, particularly in the current inflationary environment.
"Casino is an important location, drawing cattle in significant numbers and buyers from all major processors to compete on a throughput of up to 130,000 head per year."
Under new lease agreements agents will handle their livestock to the fall of the hammer and after that Outcross staff will take control of animals.
Mr Newsome said those operations would be handled in a collaborative that included trusted agency staff to be involved in post sale musters.
"Outcross will handle the weigh and delivery," he said.
"We operate at Roma the same way."
The issue of cattle handling was a major sticking point in initial negotiations between protesting agents and the controlling council. At the time, when one auctioneer declared that the fight "could take until Christmas", there was no talk of collaboration.
"It's in everyone's benefit to collaborate," Mr Newsome said.
He described negotiations over the lease with the council had been "good" while debate over fees to agents and buyers had been "hard but fair".
Another area of new management will include dipping procedures with all cattle sold drafted in buyers' pens before being walked to the dip in job lots.
Prior sales had freshly weighed cattle in dribs and drabs entering the same laneway as those who were coming out of their chemical bath, freshly dipped, and leading to the potential for confusion.
Outcross are highly experienced in this industry. They first signed a saleyards contract at Dubbo in 2008 and currently manage 33 sites on a contract basis.
Another 90 sites are client based.
In addition there are 60 saleyard locations that use the company's software and technology under the banner Stockyard, which catalogues the sale, processes vendor declarations and manages compliance and buyer reporting under best-practice guidelines.
As for those that wave down the bids, commission buyers will be lifting delivery fees on prime cattle from $1 to $1.50 and on store cattle to the same new price from zero in prior times.
Feed for livestock left in the yards will cost $3 a head per day.
