Truck drivers being trampled, gates getting jammed and hung on sliders by D-shackles, cattle knee-deep in mud and effluent.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
These are just some examples of issues being faced by the those that work at Wagga Livestock Marketing Centre who have described them as a 'pigsty', especially over the past six weeks with the wet weather period.
The saleyards, run by Wagga Wagga City Council, is considered the 'premier' place to sell livestock as it's ranked the countries largest selling centre processing 167,306 head of cattle and 2,119,029 head of sheep and lambs for a turnover of $508,694,232.10 for 2022.
While the muddy conditions were drying up at the time of print, several industry groups who have been calling for an upgrade of the cattle yards for many years, still have concerns.
Wagga Wagga livestock carrier and owner Tim Smyth, T & M Smyth Transport has been carting stock at Wagga yards for 10 years, with an average of 50 loads a week of both sheep and cattle.
Mr Smyth said he did not know how agents and operators were being expected to wade through knee-deep mud to access cattle, let alone get out of the way if a beast did happen to run at them.
"The council needs to go and have a look at their competitors, as their competitors are a mile in front," Mr Smyth said.
"They're not yarding the numbers because of our proximity, but they're a mile in front as far as their infrastructure and what they provide.
"Wagga does pride themselves on being the premier selling centre in NSW, but the competitors with new yards such as Yass offer a roof and soft floors.
"The only way Wagga can compete is something being done better with a roof, to be able to keep the water out."
Cattle buyer, Geoff Bruan, has been buying a considerable amount of cattle out of Wagga saleyards for over 10 years, and says that minimal work has been done to the cattle facility in that time.
He described the state of the back delivery pens as a 'pigsty' and that an option of putting a roof over the top of the yards would play a major part in reducing the problems.
One of the major feedlots that Mr Braun buys for, has stopped buying from Wagga in the past three years due to the state of the back pens and the amount of cattle that were lame and sore coming out of the saleyards.
"It's not fair on the people working there and it's certainly not fair and right on the animals, that they're being delivered into the pigsty that's there." Mr Bruan said.
"The pens are sort of scalloped out that when they do get rain, whether it's 5 millimetres or 15mm, it all just runs into the pens and cant get away, they've actually got to be built up so the water can run away.
"I've seen cattle come in over the last couple of weeks that have been stored out on those dirt pens and then bought in and ran through the system, and the amount of mud, I would refuse to pay vendor's dues if they were displayed like that coming through the ring.
"People spend 12 or 18 months getting their cattle to the best of their ability, then they put them one night in the Wagga saleyards and they look like they've been in a mix master you know.
"It definitely affects the prices through the ring, especially if you have a stick sort of day (price wise) and you get cattle run in and they've got mud all over them and they don't look 100 per cent, you know it can cost a lot of dollars.
"It's just not right, the city won't put up their hand and say "we wont charge that guy any market dues today because the cattle don't present right."
The Wagga Selling Agents Association (WSAA) president Henry Booth said the association was working in collaboration with Wagga City Council to remediate the current state of the sale yard delivery pens.
But he said due to the increased winter turnoff in both sale day numbers and transit cattle, as well as the increased rainfall had led to a deterioration of the surface in the delivery pens.
"Council are remediating the current issue with some short-term resolutions to allow the pens to remain operational until the weather improves." Mr Booth said.
"Council and the WSAA are in discussions and working on a long-term solution to the resolve the issue and we hope to have confirmation of that plan in the near future but at this point a time frame cannot be established for various reasons.
"In relation to the receival pens there is a buyer and agent supported soft floor trail currently underway that has seen similar weather related challenges and these issues are being dealt with weekly to allow the pens to remain operational and for the trail to continue.
"Due to the scale of the Wagga selling complex and the weekly throughput there is unfortunately no quick fix for the issue at hand."
Livestock, Bulk and Rural Carriers Association is another industry body trying to step in and help Wagga City Council progress with the development of the yards.
"We're working with the council and they've committed to to replace the ramps in this financial year, with a tender to go out," Livestock, Bulk and Rural Carriers Association president, Wade Lewis said.
"We've asked them to put a roof over the facility, to facilitate this and also use the covered yards in wet periods to help mitigate this issue of the build up of effluent."
A Wagga Wagga City Council spokesperson said that they were committed to providing short, medium and long-term improvements to all operational assets of the LMC, options include but are not limited to solid roofing of areas throughout the site.
"The LMC cattle delivery pens are currently fit for purpose," the spokesperson said.
"Regular maintenance of the area continues; however it was hampered for several weeks due to continued inclement weather creating a situation where machinery activity within the site would have exacerbated any potential situation."
