Meat & Livestock Australia’s comprehensive annual saleyard surveys, the most recent edition of which was released last week, report the number of cattle transacted at auction in each NLRS-reported selling centre each year.

Dustin and Nathan Keyes. Pic: Cloncurry Shire Council

However the reports don’t capture another significant volume of cattle also handled in some saleyards and other privately-owned facilities.

That is the large number of cattle sold privately which are rested in transit yards as they move long distances to their final destination, which can include processing plants, feedlots, restocker and backgrounder paddocks and live export pre-quarantine facilities.

Animal welfare requirements and laws governing the length of time drivers can operate in a single stretch before taking a rest break mean a number of yards, including some saleyards, provide spelling facilities throughout western Queensland.

Chief among them is the Cloncurry Saleyards and Cattle Clearing Facility owned by the Cloncurry Shire Council, which have been managed by brothers Nathan and Dustin Keyes for the past nine years.

Nathan told Beef Central this week that 286,000 cattle were handled through the yards last financial year, which compares to a long-term average of around 250,000 head per year.

The 2023-24 volume handled through Cloncurry included cattle in transit and also cattle sold privately over the scales through the yard.

“Cloncurry is a really central delivery point as all roads come off us whether it is export Darwin, southern processors, feedlots, channel country fatteners, or the northern Gulf properties, so we’re in a unique position,” Mr Keyes said.

“It is a real mixed grill we have got here.”

The current financial year is also keeping the brothers and their crew busy, with an estimated 100,000 already having been handled since July.

Activity tends to slow down through the wet season months of December to February, Mr Keyes said.

Contributing to the rise in numbers this year had been increased export orders from Indonesia. A large percentage of Queensland cattle exported through Darwin each year are initially assembled and/or bought by exporters at Cloncurry before trucking north.

There has also been a large number of backgrounding cattle, from weaners to 400kg, moving from the Queensland Gulf and Barkly Tableland cattle to properties further south for backgrounding for feedlots.

A brand-new rail loading facility has also just been completed at the yards which is expected to facilitate a greater flow of cattle by train from Cloncurry to Townsville, and in turn to processors and feedlots further south, in coming years, Mr Keyes said.

Further south at Winton, about 100,000 transit cattle were handled through the council-owned yards in 2023/24, manager Gavin Smith told Beef Central this week, which is also above the long-term average for that factility.

AAM, the operator of the Western Queensland Livestock Exchange at Longreach, which serves as a spelling facility in addition to conducting commercial and stud cattle sales, reported  that 90,403 head of transit cattle were handled through the yards in the 2023-24 financial year.

Loading cattle at Morven. Pic: Qld Govt.

One of the state’s newest spelling yards at Morven has reported its busiest year since opening in 2020.

115,000 head have passed through the yards this year, with 35,000 going on the rail.

Morven was a beneficiary of the large numbers of cattle going from North Queensland to Southern New South Wales and Victoria earlier this year.

 The Roma Saleyards is Australia’s largest cattle selling centre, transacting 250,918 cattle in 2023-24, but is also a well-used cattle spelling facility.

In addition to the cattle sold via auction, the Roma Saleyards also handled 40,846 cattle for spelling, according to the Maranoa Regional Council.