Agents pay an annual fee to council which has been bumped up to $10,000 this year from $7,000 last year and $5,000 the previous year. 

At this month’s council meeting they applied to administrator Christine Ferguson to have the fee reduced back to $7,000 citing a decrease in the number of members and throughput at the local yards.

When the Yass yards were built, Cootamundra Associated Agents lost Butt Livestock and Property and Landmark Yass, which had both sold stock from the Yass area out of the Cootamundra yards previously.  

Current members include Delta Agribusiness, Landmark, Holman Tolmie, Elders and Bassingthwaighte Livestock Marketing with these five organisations having to pay $2000 each of the new, higher annual fee. 

Associated Agents secretary Geoff Twomey said had the Yass agents remained in the association, there would have been no issue with the increased fee, however as it currently stands, agents are being asked to pay more than ever while they stand to reap the rewards of the yards less and less. 

Mr Twomey conservatively estimates that yardings this financial year will be down by 120,000 head as a direct result of the yards being built in Yass. 

With 235,000 head yarded last year, this marks a significant drop.

In rejecting the call for a fee reduction back to last year’s level of $7,000, council said the $10,000 fee should be maintained as it reduces any potential impost on the community.

“Council has little scope to reduce its costs for the facility, the yards and buildings are ageing and while still able to provide a suitable service do require on-going maintenance,” a council spokesperson said. 

They said the current financial year budgeted income for council is heavily reliant upon throughput.

To date council has invoiced for approximately $86,000 for income for the facility, with the spokesperson saying that based on this figure achieving the budgeted income of $191,938 looks unlikely.

Mr Twomey said agents will continue to lobby council for a fee reduction.