Manager upbeat on Muchea

Muchea Livestock Centre’s new manager is Lyndon Henning.

Mr Henning, who has a background in sheep farming in Koorda as well as contracting and business management, is seen to have the experience necessary to ensure a smooth-working livestock centre.

After five weeks in the role, Mr Henning has seen fluctuations in both cattle and sheep numbers, however, he is confident Muchea will continue to be a top-selling environment with strong buyer presence.

Mr Henning said the main issues affecting operations at the centre were nominations of livestock and ensuring producers delivered livestock that were fit to load.

“Receiving nominations is still poor some weeks — we need to know what is coming in to allocate yarding,” he said.

“Producers also need to make sure they are loading livestock that are fit for transport. In some cases, this means making decisions about selling livestock earlier, before they run out of feed and water.”

Mr Henning said if livestock arriving at the saleyard were not fit to load in accordance with Meat and Livestock Australia guidelines, it was the saleyard’s responsibility to not allow the animals to be transported further.

This would result in the animals being fed and watered at the centre at the vendor’s cost until they were in a satisfactory condition.

Mr Henning’s role as manager is a new position created by the WA Meat Industry Authority (WAMIA).

WAMIA has also recruited Brooke Meredith as business support officer and Mark Elson as management accountant in August 2010.

Dave Saunders, previously compliance officer, has been made support services manager, which also incorporates his previous role.

Membership of six WAMIA board members will be up for renewal at the end of March.

WAMIA chief executive Renata Paliskis submitted a report to last week’s WAFarmers Meat Section conference. It said 2010 was WAMIA’s busiest year so far, since the opening of the Muchea Livestock Centre and restructure of the authority.

Not including this week, about 87,189 cattle and 538,996 sheep have passed through the Muchea yards for the 2010/2011 period so far.

The report said 2011 was likely to be a very busy year for WAMIA with the centre’s services being expanded.

In the coming months, WAMIA will relaunch its website, which will enable market reports to be accessed on the day of the sale as well as pre-sale yardings.

The website will also explain the centre’s entry requirements and services, as well as provide electronic access to abattoir approval forms.

The Muchea Livestock Centre Precinct will begin its initial development, with the advertising of expressions of interest for ground leases on the site to be made soon.

The total area of site is 303 hectares with about 40ha to be made available for ground leasing at this stage.

Ground leasing will be sought while the Muchea Employment Node Structure Plan is implemented by the Shire of Chittering and the WA Planning Commission.