A NEW era in the operation of Australian saleyards is dawning as a private company, Regional Infrastructure Pty Ltd, not only tackles the operation of a swag of struggling council operated sites, but is also developing new, cutting-edge livestock marketing centres.
Regional Infrastructure (RIPL) hit the news in Central Queensland in late October when it was named as the preferred tenderer by Rockhampton Regional Council to take over management of the Gracemere Saleyards.
When RIPL does take over the 98- hectare site's management, most likely in early 2010, not only will it set about upgrading and expanding the site, but it will make the company the largest operator of saleyards in Australia.
RIPL chairman Garry Edwards said Gracemere Saleyards would be rebranded as the Central Queensland Livestock Exchange (CQLX) and undergo major upgrades under its control.
"We're expecting a commercial cost of between $14 million and $18m in upgrades, but we're not quite sure what the final figure will be," Mr Edwards said.
"What we're interested in is what the facilities are that need to be improved and whatever that figure is, it is.
"We will replace the older sections of the yards and change the configuration around to improve stock flow and efficiencies, address any animal welfare concerns and critical OH&S issues, and expand yard capacity.
"We certainly want to increase throughput, and we've done that at our other centres.
"But we have to do the redevelopment of the site in stages - at this point in time it will be in four or five stages so we can continue to operate here with minimal impact, as we need to ensure that each stage is completed before the start of the stud stock-selling season each year.
"The issue is, we have to be realistic as to how much we can get improved each time, and it will take us a few years to solve it."
Despite Rockhampton Regional Council's decision to undertake a tender process to lease the site in late 2008 amid a forecast annual operation loss for the saleyards of $345,000 for the 2008/09 financial year, Mr Edwards is positive about its future.
"This is our professional business - we do things very differently to councils and I understand councils have limitations that we don't in the type of services we provide and how we go about achieving this result," Mr Edwards said.
"This facility has a tremendous reputation; however, we will be focusing our investment in improvements on cattle-related facilities and not necessarily any of the ancillary facilities.
"We don't expect new fees to be much different to what they are now.
"We've done the financial modelling and the fees don't necessarily need to change a great deal to accommodate what we need to do here, but they need to reflect the commercial reality of the services that are provided.
"At the end of the day, you've got to provide the facilities and the relevant associated services if you're going to expect producers to support you.
"I hope producers embrace it because to be fair, if we don't do this work, I don't know who else is out there who's going to do it. The live auction industry is still the preferred selling method for the majority of livestock producers through-out the country, and we are looking at providing them with world-leading facilities to present their stock for sale.
"We are intentionally focused around the livestock industry and we know how to do this."
Gracemere Saleyards is one of at least 15 sites across Australia which Regional Infrastructure is working on as part of its Regional Livestock Exchange (RLX) project with Palisade Investment Partners, an investment funds manager.
"Palisade has a range of investment funds and this particular project fits inside their regional infrastructure fund that is investing in the livestock exchanges and also in waste-recycling plants. The fund is intentionally focused around long-term strategic regional assets. From our perspective, that means 25 years or longer, so when we model any of these projects, we're modelling them for at least 25 to 30 years, as we are in it for the long haul," Mr Edwards said.
"We do take long-term views and there's always going to need to be food produced, so as much as anything we see this as an investment in the food industry ? it just happens to be the live animal part of it. We are very positive about the long-term outlook of livestock production in this country and that is why we are investing in it."
Regional Infrastructure established its first RLX in February 2008 - the state-of-the-art Central Tablelands Livestock Exchange (CTLX) between Blayney and Carcoar in Central NSW, replacing outdated saleyards at Orange, Blayney and Bathurst, at a cost in excess of $18 million.
It also operates the Northern Victoria Livestock Exchange at Wodonga, with the Central Victorian Livestock Exchange at Ballarat due to begin operations in 2010.
"We are also expecting to start construction soon on the new Tamworth Regional Livestock Exchange, which is a brand new facility, and RIPL has a development application currently submitted for the South East Queensland Livestock Exchange near Dalby," Mr Edwards said.
"The focus initially was getting the CTLX up and running and making sure it was going to work the way we wanted it to."
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