The company has spent more than $100,000 on electronic ear tag readers and was planning a new effluent disposal system.
“We’ve kept up with everything. We haven’t got behind,” he said.
News the Tinwald yards in Ashburton would close later this year confirmed a trend of consolidation of sale yards around the country, some closing and others holding fewer sales.
Closures in recent years included Cromwell, Matamau near Dannevirke and Studholme and Holme Station in South Canterbury.
Compliance was seen as a costly burden for some yard operators but Bowan said it was a case of doing what had to be done.
“You have just got to accept it and get on with it,” he said.
Temuka, being centrally located, drew stock from as far away as central Otago and Mid Canterbury and buyers from throughout the South Island.
Bowan said the yeards handled about 60,000 cattle last year, double the number of several years ago, and 300,000 sheep, a drop of 10% to 15% reflecting land use change in its immediate catchment.
Some of the increase in cattle numbers came from the expanded dairy industry but the closure of Tinwald could direct more sheep to Temuka.
Temuka held a prime stock sale every Monday with a store stock sale every second Thursday. Store stock sales would be held every week for the first part of next year.
Feilding Saleyards Committee chairman Matt Langtry said its central location was a significant attribute.
It was a highly successful selling complex, holding prime stock sales on Mondays, store stock on Fridays and seasonal sales midweek.
Stock was drawn from Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa, Ohakune, Taihape and southern Taranaki and, in dry years, from the South Island. Buyers came from the lower half of the North Island.
Being in the centre of town imposed some operational limits but efficient yard staff and systems operated by PGG Wrightson and Carrfields meant stock were yarded on the morning of the sale and loaded out that afternoon, he said.
While some yards were closing, seven years ago two private South Island stock firms re-opened the Coalgate sale yards 60km west of Christchurch and now hosted weekly prime and store sales and special seasonal sales.
Peter Walsh and Associates and Hazlett Rural needed access to sale yards but found buying into the Canterbury Park yards too steep.
Peter Walsh said they decided to re-open the century-old Coalgate yards and he estimated they sold 25,000 to 30,000 cattle and 220,000 sheep a year.
The success was because of supportive agents but also being located in a large livestock catchment with stock sourced from Marlborough to Mid Canterbury.
“We’ve got a very enthusiastic group of agents that supply it and support it very strongly with both livestock and buying support.”
Hazlett Rural general manager Ed Marfell said they started in 2009 by holding a calf sale then went to fortnightly sales then a sale each Thursday.
Cattle were pre-weighed and a catalogue printed for buyers. Stock was sold on the rail rather than through a central pen.
Being close to the Canterbury foothills meant the yards were adjacent to a large catchment of livestock.
The Cromwell sale yards was holding only three or four sales a year and losing between $30,000 and $50,000 in the process when the decision was made to close about a year ago.
Former Cromwell Saleyards Company chairman Gordon Lucas said compliance costs were outstripping income to the point where the company could not afford secretarial services or audit fees.
AgriHQ senior market analyst Suz Bremner said the decline in the number of sale yards reflected the move from sheep and beef to dairy but better roads also drove the consolidation to several big, central yards.
In some areas large breeding cow herds had shifted to bull beef finishing while the number of lamb breeders had declined.
She did not think online selling was having an impact because buyers liked to see the stock they were considering and sellers wanted to know what the market was doing.
