Central Agri Group's Peter Polovinka has been touring Kimberley and Top End stations to drum-up supply."It'll make the industry so much more viable because instead of turning off 10 or 20 per cent of the animals [mustered] you can turn off 50 per cent or more."
Mr Polovinka was reluctant to provide an exact date of when the meatworks would open, but was confident the renovations were on track for the site to have its first kill in the next few months.When running at full capacity, the Batchelor meatworks is expected to process around 200 head of cattle per day.
"It's excellent news, we need an outlet for our cattle that are out of spec [for the live export trade]," he said. Mr Rathsmann said last year's closure of the AACo abattoir had definitely hurt northern beef producers."We're all probably carrying more cattle than we should. We really need that outlet to get rid of out-of-spec animals and unproductive cows.He said he was optimistic about the reopening of Batchelor meatworks, and that Mr Polovinka brought a wealth of experience to the facility.