A BIG lift in cattle throughput has the electronic marketer, AuctionsPlus, now second only to the Roma saleyards.
AuctionsPlus general manager Gary Dick said for the year ending June 30, cattle throughput lifted by 20 per cent to 280,000 head, following on the 40 per cent lift of the previous year.
Mr Dick said AuctionsPlus recorded another good year on sheep and lamb sales slightly under 2 million head, although well back on the record 2.2 million head of 2010..
The combined cattle, sheep and lamb throughput has AuctionsPlus now firmly "Australia's busiest saleyard", which Mr Dick regards as a milestone achievement for a system which this year is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Mr Dick also confirmed that AuctionsPlus had also delivered a record financial result for its three major shareholders - Elders (which has a 50 per cent stake), Landmark (40 per cent) and RuralCo (10 per cent).
But despite the ownership by the big three corporate agencies, Mr Dick said the independent agencies were also major users of the electronic sales.
Mr Dick said much of the 2011-12 profits would be re-invested in upgrading AuctionsPlus technology and software.
In a breakdown of the cattle throughputs, slaughter or prime stock sales would have accounted for only 3 per cent, which was well down on previous years.
"We have found that many clients who had used AuctionsPlus to sell slaughter stock were moving eventually to direct or over-the-hooks sales, rather than going back to the saleyards," Mr Dick said.
Mr Dick said for sheep and lamb sales, the proportion of slaughter stock sold to processors was about 30 per cent and were mostly made up sheep rather than lamb.
Although he said AuctionsPlus was popular for selling Tasmanian prime lamb to mainland processors
Source: weeklytimesnow.com.au
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