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Tongala abbattoir affected by dairy downturn

2009-09-18 PRESS RELEASE

A major reduction in cattle numbers across the northern Victorian irrigation areas has forced HW Greenham & Sons to reduce through-put at its Tongala plant.

The current two shift operation will revert to a single daily shift from 5 October, resulting in the loss of a significant number of jobs.

Executive Chairman, Peter Greenham, said the company deeply regretted the need for such action but was simply unable to source enough cattle to maintain previous throughput levels.

“The drought and associated negligible or nil water allocations over recent years has had a devastating effect on the local dairy industry which is our lifeblood. In 2000 this region was producing 2.8 billion litres of milk per annum. Today it is around 25% lower at 2.0 billion litres," Mr Greenham said.

"We believe that production per cow has actually gone up during that period suggesting that cattle numbers have fallen even further than the reduced milk production would indicate.

"And the situation isn't improving. Milk production year to date is down 12.5% in northern Victoria compared with 1.0% in Gippsland and 0.2% in the western district."

Mr Greenham reassured farmers that the company was still a very active player in the market and would continue to compete vigorously for their cattle.

"We will process as many cattle as we can get. The problem is that they just aren't there, which is why we've had to reduce employment numbers."

Mr Greenham said all retrenched employees would receive their full entitlements and that the company was liaising with Centrelink to ensure that assistance was available to those affected.

For further information please contact Jack Moore or Chris Dingle at Rivergum Marketing on 03 5445 6100