MLA saleyard survey results: Muchea and Katanning still top spots for cattle and sheep

Muchea Livestock Centre and Katanning Regional Saleyards have retained their positions as WA’s largest cattle and sheep saleyards respectively, despite both recording a sizeable drop in throughput last financial year.

New figures from Meat and Livestock Australia show Muchea had an annual throughput of 71,741 head of cattle in 2022-23, down 23.8 per cent or 22,437 head from the previous financial year.

Boyanup Saleyards in the South West was the runner-up with 66,906 cattle transactions — 18.7 per cent or 15,350 head fewer than in 2021-22.

Mt Barker Saleyard in the Great Southern ranked third with 54,338 head, down 12.7 per cent (7898 head) from 2021-22.

WA recorded the fourth highest cattle throughput by State with a total of 192,985 head transacted at the three facilities, down 19.1 per cent from 238,670 head in 2021-22.

NSW topped the list with nearly 1.25 million transactions at 28 facilities, followed by Queensland (1.13 million head, 20 facilities), Victoria (790,530 head, 17 facilities), South Australia (165,504 head, four facilities) and Tasmania (35,126 head, one facility).

Nationwide, there were nearly 16.4 million cattle and sheep transactions in total, down from 16.8 million the previous financial year.

MLA senior market information analyst Ripley Atkinson said the drop in numbers highlighted the cyclical nature of the livestock sector.

“NSW sheep, NSW cattle and Queensland sheep transactions were the only State and species level throughput volumes to increase,” he said.

“The herd and flock rebuilds in NSW drove improvements in transactions of sheep and cattle across the State.”

Transaction volumes fell across all other States and species compared to the previous financial year.

“The cyclical nature of the herd and flock rebuilds, alongside changing market conditions, can be attributed to adjustments in livestock supply via the saleyards, as producers choose different sales channels to market their stock,” Mr Atkinson said.

WA had a total sheep throughput of 604,747 head, down 29.7 per cent from 859,924 the year prior.

Some 336,541 head passed through Katanning Regional Saleyards — 32.1 per cent or 158,768 fewer than in 2021-22.

Muchea Livestock Centre was next with 268,206 head of sheep, down 26.4 per cent or 96,409 head.

WA had the fourth highest sheep throughput by State with a total of 604,747 head passing through Katanning and Muchea, down 29.7 per cent from 859,924 in 2021-22.

NSW topped the list with more than 7.1 million sheep transactions at 16 saleyards, followed by Victoria (3.9 million head, 12 saleyards), SA (898,133 head, three saleyards), TAS (122,088 head, one saleyard) and QLD (82,720 head, one saleyard).