The operator of a sheep crutching business serving South West farmers has revealed he has taken a financial hit as uncertainty over the industry’s future.
Redneck Livestock Service owner Dean Phillips said business has declined over the last 18 months in the lead up to the live sheep export ban passing Federal Parliament last week.
Mr Phillips and his team offer crutching services to sheep farmers from Manjimup and Boyup Brook to Williams, Harrismith and Lake Grace.
“My team crutches between 150,000 to 180,000 sheep a year,” he said.
“I do two runs—a summer run and winter-spring run. This summer we lost four weeks work with people going out of the market.
“It’s about 20,000 to 25,000 sheep less than what I normally do.”
Mr Phillips expects to see a further 25 percent drop in the next year, which is about 30,000 less sheep for the business.
“I’ll have to look for other work in between,” he said.
“It has definitely affected us financially and put a lot of stress on what I can do.”
Engaging with producers across the South West, Mr Phillips said many have reduced their sheep stock or exited the industry completely due to “price uncertainty” in the market caused by the new law.
The “flow on effect” has impacted his own business, which employs three to five workers at any given time.
Mr Phillips also runs a small farm and has a family to support with three children.
“I used to run 1000 sheep but due to the uncertain market over the past 18 months, I have cut my numbers back to 300 head of breeding ewes,” he said.
Mr Phillips said as a business owner, the live export ban makes it hard for him to employ people and offer consistent work to his team.
He argued if the “Greenies” were worried about sheep welfare, they would be supporting Australia’s live export trade.
“We’ve got high standards and very low death rates,” Mr Phillips said.
“If we lose the live export market in Australia, (international customers are) just going to go to (another) country to get the sheep and the conditions are going to be a lot worse,” he said.
It comes as the State Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis did not rule out stumping up State cash after Federal transition support for the ban was lashed as inadequate.