Wellard - Processor AND Live Exporter of Sheep

Sheep in WA limbo after licence suspension

• Australian Associated Press
• 1:51PM June 25, 2018

A meat processor has offered to take 60,000 sheep left in limbo in a West Australian feedlot after the federal government suspended a livestock exporter's license.
The animals were due to be taken to the Middle East when the Department of Agriculture suspended the license of the nation's largest shipper Emanuel Exports.
WA's Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan says a company has contacted the state government and offered to process the sheep domestically.
"We've got one of the large processors who is prepared to buy all the sheep in the feedlot, keep feeding them in the feedlot for the next three to four weeks," Ms MacTiernan told reporters on Friday.
She says they are in discussions with three other abattoirs who have said they can also take more sheep.
The Department of Agriculture has also suggested the sheep be transferred to another live export company.
WAFarmers president Tony York told The West Australian another livestock exporter might be prepared to help Emanuel but the sheep could not go back on farms under biosecurity regulations.
But the federal government says there is nothing, including biosecurity measures, preventing the sheep from returning to the "national herd".

(love that last line from the "federal government" trying to keep a floor under the price - good luck!)