Reproduced with permission

More than markets: fee hike highlights saleyards’ critical community role

The Land, Jamie Brown, 28 August 2026

There has been a 71 per cent hike in fees for vendors and agents selling at Grafton Regional Livestock Selling Centre since the start of the financial year and livestock producers say the one-hit increase is too much to bear.

Now, there is a push by the chair of the saleyards committee to look beyond the rural enterprise that profits livestock producers, to include co-benefits that flow through to the wider community.

Other council-owned selling centres have dealt with similar issues.

The Grafton Regional Livestock Selling Centre supports a local cattle industry worth $65 million, while generating $7 million to $10 million in additional economic activity through the circular economy.

It also generates $400,000 in user fee revenue, in addition to farm rates.

“That is not simply a council facility,” said Debrah Novak, the newly-elected advisory committee chair of the Clarence Valley Council.

“It is an important regional economic and agricultural asset. The way we plan for its future needs to change.”

Cr Novak echoed advice from consultant Charles Boog, chief executive officer of Signal 7, who helped guide Dubbo saleyards’ future direction as a public entity, after its private sale failed to progress.

Signal 7 designs “capital pathways from public assets that governments already hold but aren’t using well”.

Mr Boog advocates for reinvestment strategy, funding structures, co-investment models and commercial approaches that “go beyond disposal”.

Compared to 1970, when Australia had 600 saleyards, that number today has dwindled to less than 100.

In the past 15 years, $300 million in government money was spent on saleyards yet some closed, or were sold while others continue to struggle.

Mr Boog said 52 per cent of those selling centres needed work with 13pc requiring “urgent attention”.

While council-operated saleyards competed with privately-owned centres and the online space, they remained critical infrastructure, contributing $13 billion of the $28b gleaned from beef exports making them the fourth largest agricultural sector.

However, he admitted prices charged to producers were “miniscule compared to the value of stock”.

“At the moment these yards might be paying for their operating costs but they are not making enough to pay for renewal,” he said.

“We need to change the model.”

Mr Boog said the Dubbo precinct resulted from the council “adopting a hybrid hub vision”, which is designed to integrate market and transport data to create supply chain efficiencies that should deliver greater profit to the producer.

“It’s about providing a more connected view of what’s happening in the system,” he said.

“At the moment there is a lot of information in separate silos.”

At Grafton, Cr Novak said the future of its Regional Livestock Selling Centre should be the focus of a comprehensive strategic planning process.

She said the next step should be a comprehensive assessment of the facility’s future, including a master plan, feasibility study and business case.

“We need to understand the infrastructure requirements, the economic benefits, the industry’s future needs and the investment required to position Grafton for the next 20 or 30 years,” she said.

“We need to understand what the facility could become, what the industry will need and what investment will be required. Then we can have an informed conversation about fees, investment and funding.”

Across the state, saleyards provide massive economic benefits to the wider community and agents in other districts would support the notion of selling centres being classified as “critical infrastructure”, which would open wider avenues of government funding.

Peter Cabot, Nutrien Wagga Wagga, said saleyards delivered “extreme impact” and should be treated as critical to the community.

“They bring a whole host of benefits,” he said.

“Producers arrive with a load of lambs and go home with produce and equipment.”

Mr Cabot said the acute dry experienced by the southern districts last year was felt in the city centre of Wagga Wagga.

“The amount of people the facilities bring into town is amazing,” he said.

“There’s accommodation, and fuel sales. The impact is huge.”

At Forbes, the council-owned livestock exchange was “an important asset to the wider Forbes community and Central Western district,” said agent Sam Mackay.

He acknowledged that fees levied on transactions had to remain in balance, or producers might opt to consign their stock directly, and avoid the yards altogether.

At Grafton the concern for that potential loss of trade is real.

Producer Robert Page, Heifer Station, said the new $20 a head cost, which included a capital works levee, had the potential to push larger producers away from the local saleyards.

“The saleyards are valuable especially when it comes to natural disaster management,” he said.

“There is a pool of funding available to support important infrastructure and instead of extracting fees from producers, the council should be accessing grants for this purpose.

“This saleyard is a social and economic asset for the whole of the Northern Rivers.”

Retired livestock agent Ray Donovan warned of flow-on consequences.

“If we get too much of a price rise, we will lose producers and lose buyers,” he said.

“The Clarence Valley is a big rural area and yet we don’t seem to have a rural voice to support us.”

Mr Donovan said the Grafton saleyards were built on donated land amalgamated into the wider Clarence Valley Council.

While new steel yards and a truck wash have been built in recent years, there is no roof, as with other selling centres.

“We feel that once you take into consideration the increased levy plus freight to get them to the yards, that it is too much,” he said.

Meanwhile, Cr Novak said she would push the Clarence Valley Council to appoint an agricultural officer, a position which exists in neighbouring council areas.

“We have no agricultural policy and we need to develop one,” she said.

“We have nothing with which to guide staff.”

The Clarence Valley Council was contacted for comment.

First published in The Land on 28 August 2026. Written by Jamie Brown. Reproduced with permission.