Greg Payne says Pakenham saleyards closure has turned carriers 'on their heads'

Greg Payne's company, Payne's Livestock Transport, carts more than 20,000 cattle from the Pakenham saleyards each year, equating to about 30 per cent of the annual workload for the family-owned business.

Mr Payne runs the operation with his son Danny and said the decision to close the Pakenham saleyards without an alternative livestock holding facility in West Gippsland had turned "local carriers on their heads".

"We're now in the process of building new cattle yards to handle cattle in transit because there will be nowhere to drop cattle once Pakenham closes," he said.

"For instance, you might get cattle delivered from Bairnsdale or Ballarat to the Pakenham yards, and then they might be split up onto different trucks and go somewhere else."

In November 2023, the owners of the saleyards, Victorian Livestock Exchange, said it would close the facility on June 30 after revealing it was paying $10,000 a week in land tax fees to keep the operation running.

"Land tax was in excess of $550,000, so it costs us $10,000 each week just to open our doors," VLE managing director Brian Paynter said in November 2023.

As a result, the Payne family has pushed ahead with plans to erect eight yards on their Pakenham South property to hold up to two B-double loads of cattle at any given time.

"Unfortunately, we need a central market of some sorts," Mr Payne said.

Payne's Livestock Transport was started by Mr Payne's grandfather, Les Payne, in 1946 when he purchased a Chevrolet Lend Lease truck with a 10-foot tray.

Mr Payne said before that, drovers would talk their cattle into the Dandenong saleyard.

The company has been passed down through four generations since and now comprises six drivers and seven trucks, including three B-doubles.

Mr Payne said Pakenham's closure would also leave livestock carriers with fewer options to wash their trucks.

"The nearest truck wash will be at Sale or Koonwarra or the other side of Ballarat or Shepparton," he said.

"Many trucks, B-doubles, come back and wash out at Pakenham on the way through after unloading at sale O'Connors abattoirs or GBP at Poowong.

"This will cause a huge headache for carriers because there is nowhere to wash our crates out now."

Recent changes to prime cattle markets in Gippsland have added to the concerns of livestock carriers, with four markets reduced from four days to two days, shortening the time carriers have to deliver livestock to buyers.

Up until now, prime markets at Pakenham were held on a Monday, followed by Sale on Tuesdays, Leongatha on Wednesdays, and Bairnsdale on Thursdays.

When Pakenham closes on June 30, the prime sale at Leongatha will move to a Tuesday, while Bairnsdale will take place on Wednesday mornings followed by Sale in the afternoon of the same day.

"It's terrible from a carriers' point of view because everything has to be done in two days instead of four," Mr Payne said.

"Carriers have had no input whatsoever, we are just told what happens and we just have to accept it."