26 January 1970
Success story for the Mudgee Abattoir
The critics have been floored and the future of the Mudgee Abattoir looks bright following a 30 per cent increase in cattle kill in 1969, over the previous year.
“No-one ever thought the Abattoir would reach this stage,” Ald. C. Croan told Thursday night’s meeting of the Abattoir County Council, during discussion of the production manager’s report.
At the beginning of the meeting, the re-elected Chairman (Cr. Wal Evans), who was re-elected unopposed, told the meeting:
“We had fun and games in the first few years.
“Some people said the abattoir was going to be a “white elephant.”
The facts and figures of the abattoir’s progress, left holders of this opinion “red-faced.”
The abattoir has flourished so well since its opening about five years ago that it is now “bursting at the seams,” in Cr. Evans words.
Future developments at the abattoirs have been planned, and the council will use $275,000 for extensive extensions.
In 1968, 10,018 cattle were killed at the abattoirs.
But in 1969, 14,953 were killed, an increase of 49 percent.
Cr. Evans told the meeting.
“The two boning rooms have been the key to the abattoir’s success.
“We could even handle another boning room.
“Certain other abattoirs have not included boning rooms, and have found themselves in financial difficulties.”
In 1968, 323,208 sheep were killed, and in 1969 the figures rose to 363,618 killed, representing an increase of 12.5 percent.
The pig kill increase was 3.2 percent, with 5,868 in 1968 and 6,060 in 1969.
Total “sheep kill units” for 1968 were 384,662 and in 1969 rose to 458,927, an overall 19 percent increase.
The total of all animals killed at the Abattoirs are calculated in “sheep kill units.”
This unit measure is mainly used for slaughtering tallies and gives the operators a common denomination and overall comparison of the kill.
A sheep is equal to one, while the cattle are equal to 5 sheep killed, and pigs equal to 1¾ sheep.
Boning production in 1969 represented 47 per cent of the total kill production last year, with Charles David Pty. Ltd. killing 151,385 sheep in 1969, compared with 125,013 in 1968.
A. W. Anderson Meat Packing Co. began boning in June, 1969, and killed 22,500 sheep and 9,154 cattle for export for the year.
Meat packed for export for all of 1969 was 1,975 tons of boneless mutton and 655 tons of boneless beef compared to 1,036 tons of boneless mutton and 12 tons of boneless beef in 1968.
For 1969, 1,021 tons of tallow, 1,434 tons of meat-meal were produced compared to 530 tons of tallow and 1,021 tons of meatmeal in 19681
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