Australia’s biggest saleyards: Which centre sells this most?

The figures are in and there are a few surprises. See which saleyard has been crowned Australia’s biggest – and the transaction numbers for all major centres.

Wagga Wagga has been crowned Australia’s biggest saleyards selling more than two million sheep and 107,000 cattle in the past financial year.

While its cattle throughput of 107,274 is about half that of the nation’s biggest beef yard at Roma, Queensland, Wagga Wagga’s sheep sales were 28 per cent higher than its nearest rival, at 2,005,901 to earn it top billing.

Wagga Wagga was also the biggest sheep-selling centre in 2020-21.

Wagga Wagga has been crowned Australia’s biggest saleyards in 2021-22. Picture: Jamie Lee Oldfield

Meat and Livestock Australia has just released the latest information on saleyard numbers for 2021-22 which showed a 1 per cent drop in sheep and cattle sold through prime sales.

National Livestock Reporting Service operations manager Stephanie Pitt said 3.7 million cattle and 13 million sheep were sold via saleyards in the 2022 financial year.

“The 2022 results show the rebuild has matured and moved towards retention,” Ms Pitt said. “Producers continue to take advantage of the higher prices, particularly for cattle (by selling in saleyards).”

Ms Pitt said there were about 16.8 million saleyard transactions made across both livestock species, down 1 per cent from the 17 million transactions recorded in the previous financial year. But the fall was not consistent across species.

“Cattle transactions were up 7 per cent year-on-year with increases in cattle supply recorded in Victoria, Tasmania, NSW and Queensland,” Ms Pitt said.

“The most notable shifts in supply were in Charters Towers (up 202 per cent) and Tamworth, which rose to the top of the NSW ranking by recording a supply increase of 23 per cent year-on-year.”

In contrast, sheep transactions were down 3 per cent year-on-year, at 13 million head.

Victorian yards dominated the sheep-selling action, taking out three of the top five placings behind Wagga Wagga.

Victoria’s biggest sheep saleyards was Ballarat, which sold more than 1.56 million sheep and lambs in 2021-22 or 36 per cent of the state’s yearly total.

Nationally, NSW took the mantle for the most sheep sold through saleyards at 6.685 million while Queensland sold the most cattle through yards with 1.237 million.

The top five cattle yards for throughput in Victoria were Leongatha (160,202); Wodonga (111,688); Mortlake (111,490); Pakenham (109,048) and Shepparton (68,867). Leongatha sold 18 per cent of Victoria’s cattle last financial year.

National cattle throughput was dominated by Queensland, with four of the top five placings going to yards in that state.