01

Results at a Glance

• 4,000 head of undercover, year-round

• More than 50,000 head a year through the facility

• Fully operational through a 1,500mm wet season

• The only covered pre-export quarantine facility in the Top End
  

02

Client Overview

The Northern Territory Livestock Exporters Association owns the Berrimah Export Yards, the only industry owned and operated live export depot in Australia. Berrimah is the closest registered premises to the Port of Darwin, preparing cattle trucked in from across northern Australia for export to Indonesia and Southeast Asia in the port's busiest era on record.

Every export animal must complete pre-export quarantine, including two clear days of absolute rest with no handling at all. In the Top End, that requirement collides with the climate. Wet season downpours turned the original open yards to mud, cutting machinery access and making cattle handling harder in the months when export demand runs year-round.

03

Key Outcomes

Two Ridgeback® structures now hold 4,000 head undercover across 15,400m² of yards. The patented curved-roof design produces 20 per cent more air changes per hour than conventional gable structures, keeping cattle cool, dry and calm through the buildup and the wet. Cattle, feed and pen floors stay dry through the heaviest wet season, so machinery moves year-round and pens are cleaned as they empty rather than only ahead of the wet.

Cattle spend an average of four days at Berrimah, transitioning onto the pellet and hay ration they will eat at sea. Under cover, they settle onto feed quickly and stay calm, in a trade where weights in, weights out and weights on arrival are the measure of success.

Planned from the outset as a shopfront for the industry, the yards host international delegations and industry training. The covered pens have also opened new opportunities for NTLEA, from custom feeding trials to scientific research on export cattle.