To the editor,
I AM taking the time to write to you in response to your council’s failure to support and grow agriculture in your Shire.
In this case I refer to the Swan Hill livestock selling complex future review. It is quite clear to the reader that council has already made up its mind that Shire wishes to close the facility down and restrict development in our region.
Of course, there will be a proposal to sell off the land to create a new precinct with a one-off sugar hit for council budget, instead council will not admit that it no longer has a desire or skills to operate a profitable business unit. Basically Shire has demonstrated over a period of time that its Woke agenda does not support the rural businesses in this region.
My family farm is located 114 km west of Swan Hill with most our land located in the Mildura Shire area, so I am not a rate payer. But almost all of our farm’s business is conducted in Swan Hill township. This includes banking, repair shops for trucks and machinery, parts supply, fuel supply, insurance agent, vet supplies, grocery shopping, etc, in other words our business spends hundreds of thousands of dollars in your town annually.
The flow on effect of selling our cattle elsewhere will include the loss of stock agents and families, and town transport operators moving away. This will result in the inevitable knock-on effect to mechanical repairers, truck dealerships, electricians, plumbers, accounting firms and bankers. Then the schools, hospital and general medical support shrinks.
One of the key links is our use of the Swan Hill livestock complex for trading hundreds of cattle each year which we have done so consistently for over fifty years.
The Swan Hill selling complex does offer transparency in price determination by providing a pre-sale weighing option that is considered by industry to give the farmer the fairest method of determining price on the day.
Part of the report indicates the desire for farmers to sell stock at other centres, so let’s have a look at this.
Echuca saleyards are already at capacity. It is 265km away from our farm which effectively doubles my freight bill.
In reality Ballarat is the only other facility with enough capacity at 337km away, that makes a threefold freight increase for our business to carry livestock further, shrinking the profit which is currently spent in your town.
We would most likely shift all of our business to Ballarat.
This of course follows in your desire to shrink Swan Hill into a humpy filled with unemployables on the banks of the Murray River where you can tell tales of a bygone era.
Leonard Vallance
