Livingstone Shire Council backs calls for a boutique, small multi species processing facility in the central Queensland

The project was a key topic at the Meating the Market forum organised by Queensland goat producers in Gracemere earlier this month, which attracted more than 125 people.

Livingstone Shire Council supported the forum and undertook a survey of local producers to share their ideas and experiences.

Mayor Andy Ireland said council hoped to empower local communities and enhance the economic sustainability and resilience of central Queensland in the face of changing climate conditions.

"The meat industry plays a crucial role in our food chain, and promoting locally grown, sustainably produced, and humanely processed meat and value-added products is a logical step towards meeting this challenge," Cr Ireland said.

"The establishment of a boutique small multi species processing facility in the Central Queensland region can help us achieve these goals.

"As a result of the forum, a reference and action group will be established to provide industry and community advice and input into the development of a feasibility study."

Cr Ireland said council was committed to attracting investment to build a processing facility.

A central Queensland couple have already established a pigeon and quail abattoir on their property at Ridgelands, 30 kilometres north of Rockhampton.

Greg Emmert and Louise Busby of Emmert Lane Farm built their on-farm basic poultry abattoir in 2021 after getting approvals from Safe Foods Queensland and the local council.

The abattoir is 13.5 metre long by 6.6m wide and includes a 2.4m by 3m cold room (2.4m height).

Once operational, the abattoir could process up to 1000 pigeons a day.

However, when the COVID lock downs came into effect in 2021, it shut down all the restaurants in Melbourne and Sydney and therefore disrupted the demand.

The couple now produce microgreens and mushrooms, which they market to local cafes and supermarkets in Rockhampton and on the Capricorn Coast.

They still farm up to 300 pigeons, but they have recently reached out to council to lease the poultry abattoir out for a possible supplier or operator.

"If there is an investor or someone who wants to swing it over back to an abattoir in some form, it won't take long to relocate," Mr Emmert said.

"The biggest demand is in Sydney and Melbourne and if you could power a small abattior like that, you could turn over 5000 birds a week if you had the supply.

"We didn't have any trouble get through council, but I kept it very basic.

"We got it going but then we just couldn't find any markets and there was a drop in supply because a lot of producers retired."

Mr Emmert said pigeons demand a high enough value to go into it, but there's just not enough consumed.

He even touted the idea of changing the abattoir over to process sheep or goats.

"I looked at even turning the poultry abattoir across to processing sheep and goats, because of the demand for goats and the price was up," he said.

"The issue was with getting the qualified labour and I don't know what markets they're going to target.

"Also, how will they guarantee the quality of the product if it's such a niche market and do you uniform them all or do you finish them through a feedlot?"