Sheep decline hits saleyards

Sheep sales through Katanning in 2015 were among the lowest in recent years, with feed and water issues along with a trend of farmers choosing crops over livestock, affecting sales.

Katanning saleyards manager Rod Bushell said about 700,000 head of sheep had passed through the yard in 2015.

That was down from a peak of about 1.3 million over the past decade.

Mr Bushell said a slow start to the year heavily affected sales but the year finished strongly, mainly because of strong prices.

"Prices were very good towards the end of the year," he said.

Mr Bushell said many farmers chose to sell remaining stock in December when prices were good; meaning the start of 2016 could be quiet, mirroring 2015.

"The start of the year was really slow, numbers were really not around," he said.

"That was very closely linked to the season, feed and stock water."

Mr Bushell said overall sheep sales were falling across Australia. "Over the past 10 to 15 years numbers were between 180 million and 190 million but now they've dropped to about 90 million," he said.

"I don't think we'll see the numbers come back generally; they may increase over the short term though.

"Once we head into winter, they'll drop off again."

Mr Bushell said farmers' access to feed and water for stock was the biggest issue pushing sales numbers down but so was farmers planting crops over pastures.