Last week plans to build a new livestock selling centre at Ballarat, in central Victoria, were revealed by Regional Infrastructure – the trading name behind the Central Tablelands Livestock Exchange (CTLX).

Ballarat currently sells about 1.5 million sheep and lambs and 70,000 cattle each year.

Funds management company, Palisade Investment Partners, will spend at least $80 million building new facilities at Tamworth, Wodonga, Ballarat and Toowoomba.

A redevelopment worth up to $15 million is underway at Gracemere saleyards, Rockhampton, Queensland, with the site now under a long-term lease to Regional Infrastructure.

Despite a sheep shortage, Palisade portfolio manager, Jim Fanning, said the company had a target list of anywhere up to 20 facilities throughout Australia, and used 10-year historical data to help determine whether a new livestock exchange was viable.

“We’ve noticed a reduction in the sheep flock as people have tended to trade out of wool and more towards lambs. We don’t know, but we think that trend is stabilising,” Mr Fanning said.

Regional Infrastructure has an exclusive arrangement to manage and operate the regional livestock exchange projects.

Regional Infrastructure chief executive officer, Andrew McCarron, said state-of-the-art livestock selling centres were “feasible investments” despite the industry’s current stock shortage, and rigorous modelling was used to determine feasibility.

“Livestock production generally will escalate again. It’s a fairly vibrant industry,” Mr McCarron said.

“What’s going to be developed will have similar features to what CTLX does in terms of roofed selling areas, soft floor in the cattle pavilion and all the other innovative design features that form part of the overall complex at Carcoar.”

He said being livestock-friendly, user-friendly and environmentally-friendly was a priority for the new facilities, which was why they were being modelled on the CTLX design.

“If you can tick those boxes you can secure a future for the industry,” he said.

The new Tamworth selling centre has had a development application approved for construction near the city’s existing saleyards close to the Country Fresh and Cargill processing plants.