Castle Estate: Koallah abattoir halts contract slaughter services for beef and lamb

A Koallah meat processor has made the “difficult” decision to stop offering contract slaughter services to small-scale cattle and sheep farmers.

A major on-farm abattoir that first built its business offering contract slaughter services for paddock-to-plate producers has abruptly discontinued contract kills for cattle and sheep.

Castle Estate, at Koallah in southwest Victoria, started notifying customers last Friday that it would no longer offer contract slaughter for beef or lamb effective from Monday.

Managing director Steven Castle said the business was streamlining operations to focus on its own pet food and meat ranges, and would still offer processing services for wild game.

“Our business has become fairly complicated in terms of the wide range of services and products we produce,” Mr Castle said. “We’ve found it just too difficult to manage all aspects.

“It is not a decision we’ve made lightly. And it’s probably a decision we should have made a little while ago.”

Castle Estate managing director Steven Castle at the Koallah abattoir. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Mr Castle estimated that about 15 commercial customers and up to 1000 livestock owners who used the service less frequently would be affected by the announcement.

Clunes lamb producer Barbara Fenner, of Beckworth Retreat, had lambs booked into Castle to be processed in late February. She said she was unsure where she’d find an alternative, and the change would be a blow to her direct-to-consumer business.

“We are very disappointed at the short notice given by Castle Estate – we are booked in for 15 lambs every month – and at the lack of alternatives,” Ms Fenner said.

Burrumbeet sheep producer Jasmine Walton, of Sunnybank Farm, received notice on Monday that her March booking would not go ahead.

She said there was only one viable alternative – Hardwicks at Kyneton – and producers would struggle to gain access due to steep demand.

“If small-scale farmers aren’t able to process their own meat, and set their own price, then we are fully at the whim of retailers,” Ms Walton said. “If we have no control of the process, we’re going to lose farms.”

Mr Castle said labour shortages had also contributed to the decision, as had lack of buyer interest for the abattoir, which has been on the market for the past 12 months.

“I appreciate it has been a great service for people,” he said. “That service is a difficult one to get scalability and efficiencies around. We’ve found it very difficult to grow our staff members effectively so we could continue to offer all these things.”