The dream came true for Jack and Vicki Burton, Yeeda Pastoral Company, this year when they opened the first abattoir in the Kimberley in more than two decades.
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“There have been believers who have supported us and there have been non-believers who have inspired us, everyone has been part of it,” Mr Burton said.
“Looking at the future of the Kimberley and the future of where we are at, something like this is driven by a passion and belief in the industry.
“We're now ready to pin our ears back and make it all happen.”
More than 150 people celebrated the milestone in September, with a guided tour of the Kimberley Meat Company abattoir and attended the official opening, with many hoping the new abattoir will be a game-changer for the northern WA cattle industry.
Mr Burton's Yeeda Pastoral Company launched the project in the wake of the 2011 ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia.
“The industry has changed, we all had a kick in the guts in 2011 and no matter how much we thought our businesses were worth, they are worth nothing when you can't sell your product or property,” Mr Burton said.
“If we were in a position again where we were totally reliant on one market like that (live export) we would be in all types of strife.
“That iced the cake for me, to make the decision to control our own destiny and never be in that position again.”
Mr Burton and business partner Mervyn Key said the plant, located halfway between Broome and Derby, is licensed to process 70,000 head of cattle a year and has a refrigeration storage capacity for 320 bodies.
After trials at a rate of 25 animals an hour, Mr Burton plans to gradually increase to 250 to 300 animals a day, producing manufacturing-grade beef from cattle that are unsuitable for live export.
Once processed the beef will be trucked south and exported from Fremantle.
“It has been a slow slog getting our full licence, but we are happy with it now,” he said.
“For the opening basically everything is behind us now and it's purely about volume.
“We are focused on the quartered beef as a domestic product at this stage and will max that out and start to push into the export market.
“If we want to do more than 70,000 head we will need to do some upgrades, but it is viable at a lot less.
“The whole idea of this plant is to be a lean, mean, little plant that can operate in a low-cost environment for a high-quality, cheap product, which the world can take.
“We have a lot of cattle in the Kimberley that are perfect for that.”
Tom Redden, Consolidated Food Company, attended the opening and said he was impressed with the abattoir.
Mr Burton said Jack Cowin's Consolidated Food Company was an Australian buyer for Burger King and Taco Bell in the United States and Hungry Jacks and Dominoes in Australia and was interested in the product.
“We have a lean product in the Kimberley and it suits the manufacturing market,” Mr Burton said.
“There is a lot of interest in our product, so we are looking at what's our most lucrative market and hopefully down the track with buyers such as Consolidated Food we will find a premium and get some value add with our clean, green ventures and organic credentials.
“We have always been a manufacturing plant and have never targeted the high end product – the Kimberley is full of average type of cattle.
“We are not delusional, we can't compete with live export because the prices are too high but we have the capacity to process animals that have no live export market or have a huge cost to an alternative market.
“That's our main game – targeting the lower value product.”
The facility will operate for 10 to 11 months each year, stopping when cattle are difficult to use or for maintenance during the wet season.
“We will start looking at opening in late February, early March next year,” Mr Burton said.
“We will use our own cattle that surround the abattoir.”
Twenty-four staff from Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines are employed at the abattoir.
Once the facility hits its 250 head a day target it will employ about 45 people, but Mr Burton said when the boning room was running on site, it would employ additional staff.
“A few of the guys that have started with us haven't worked in such a mechanised system, so they will get their skills and speed up,” he said.
“Once we get up to 35 head an hour we will look at plans to utilise the plant fully and to go above that we will look at spending some more money and develop it.
“If we want to get into other markets, we will really need to finish our boning room off.
“We will start doing that, now that we have nailed the main game – the kill floor and all our approvals.
“We are purely market driven, if the market want us to get the boning room active we will. If not, we will stick to slaughter and quarter.”
Mr Burton said the biggest challenge getting such a project off the ground was capital and red tape.
