I talked to 15 different people about how the live export ban is effecting them currently, this is what they had to say.

While the banning of live export doesn’t officially start until the 1st May 2028, the effect of the ban is already been felt around WA and has been for quite a while. The negative effects are not just being felt by sheep farmers but by other businesses along the supply chain, rural communities and families. To get a well-rounded view of the effects being felt, I reached out to the AGform community.

Sheep Producers

Of course, the most likely people to be affected by this ban are sheep producers, of which I was not in short supply of people to talk to, and they were more than happy to have a chat. 

One of the first I talked to told me that just the day before our chat he had sent off the last load of his sheep, destined for the east. That was it, no more sheep on the farm. After more than 75 years of running sheep on this family farm, they were no longer. The farm and the family on the farm were now to rely solely on grain - which we know is a volatile production. 

The next person I talked to is located in the northern ag region of the state and they produce Damara x Dorper sheep, a breed that is specifically targeted at the Middle Easter live export market. Due to the characteristics of the sheep, this breed is not suitable for the domestic market. With the ban looming, the current WA sheep market is already facing oversupply, meaning that buyers for live export vessels are looking more for readily available hoggets and merino lambs, in preference to their stock. This producer has struggled to sell into the market not just this year, but for the past few years. 

“This is directly impacting our business as we are unable to downsize (due to nowhere to sell them to and a saturated market), we have just had an 18-month drought which has seen us spending ridiculous amounts to feed and water these sheep and at the moment, the only cost-effective way to reduce our numbers and overheads for our sheep enterprise will be to shoot our sheep, something none of us in the business want the job of doing.”

Their only hope right now is that the ban is rejected, but even then some of the damage is irreversible. 

Mental Health

I often wonder if the activists really pushing for the ban have considered the mental health of the people that this is affecting. I have no doubt in my mind that this ban and the stress it has caused have already been the reason people have taken their lives and are struggling every single day, and it will continue to do both into the future. 

I talked to a farmer from down south, we chatted about the mental health side of the ban. He told me that he’s seen bad years before and they were stressful, but the idea of a whole industry being shut down was severely affecting people in a totally different way. 

“The day I had to grab my gun and shoot fifty-odd of my livestock because I couldn’t afford to feed them was a day I will never forget. I replay it over in my head time and time again. I tried my hardest to get a price good enough to transport them to the stockyards, but it just didn’t happen. The feeling I had after putting my gun away, stuck around for days. I’m not ashamed to say that there were more than a few tears shed that day.”

He told me that his mental health deteriorated over the weeks, and the stress of the ban continued to weigh down on him, as did the future of the farm. Was there even going to be a farm left to pass on to his 7-year-old? Was he going to be the first generation of seven to put that “for sale” sign on the fence? What would he even do if he wasn’t a farmer?

He’s still stressed, everyone in the industry is, but he focuses on what he can control - and that is making sure that the people banning the industry know how much of a mistake they’re making. You’ll find this man, and his whole family supporting every campaign, every event, and social media post, because “I don’t even want to think about how bad mine, and others mental health is going to get.”

Currently, the mental health system is already strained, do you know how hard it is to find a psychiatrist with their books open? Even when they do have their books open, it is weeks upon weeks until people are able to get in and speak to someone. 

The Supply Chain

There are many different moving parts and businesses involved in the live export supply chain, and so many of them were keen to share the current and potential effects with me. 

The first person I talked to is a co-director of a transport company specialising in livestock, she told me that they have transported a large number of sheep as a part of the live export supply chain. With great confidence, she can say that the businesses are already being and will continue to be directly impacted by the ban. Not only will they be losing more than a quarter of their existing business, their equipment is also rapidly losing value. She tells me that the business is reluctant to order any new equipment as their confidence in the already fragile industry has taken a hit. 

I reached out to the manufacturer of livestock trailers, they let me know that they too have already started seeing the effects of the ban. “People are postponing buying decisions. They’re hanging on to hope that the decision will be reversed. But, what if it isn’t, what are we going to do then? Livestock trailers are over 50% of our business.”

The WA Shearing Industry Association lists 67 members, all shearing contractors, and that is just the ones that are registered. Many of these businesses are family-owned and operated, and they also feel the effects. Reduced numbers of sheep in the state mean there are less sheep to be shorn. The number of shearing contractors in the state is already reducing with there being less work to go around. I talked to the owner of a local shearing contracting business. 

“We’ve had to lay off five of our crew already. We put it off for as long as possible but we had no choice. There is just less and less work out there. Four of those we had to let go have moved out of town, including two families. We’re not even sure if we’ll still be operating this time next year, and if we’re not, will we even still be in town?”  

An agricultural manufacturer of sheep products also reached out to share what they described as “impacts on the lesser end of the scale compared to what sheep producers are feeling.” Their primary ag product, up until 2023, sold around 300 per year. In 2023, this decreased by 50% to an average of 150. Guess how many they’ve sold in 2024 so far? 23. “We are lucky that this product isn’t our main source of income for our business, but we know of other manufacturers who are being hit harder. Manufacturing costs are increasing and in turn that is seeing our other products rise in price, what else can we do? We simply cannot absorb the costs.”

An agricultural consultant let me ask her a couple of questions as well. She told me that the business she works in overall had seen a significant loss of clients, including her losing three of her own. “There is a couple of different reasons people are leaving - some have gotten out of sheep all altogether, some are cutting expenses, at least two have sold their farms. It’s only going to get worse from here, for everyone.”

Communities 

The transport company from above discussed the various sponsorships they have within the community, the local football club, and the hockey club, they offer up whatever money they can when a cause in the community asks. This is now threatened. 

They also make an active choice to utilise local products and services within their business. Should their business be closed down, the effect will ripple across the whole community. 

The shearing contractors from above have serious concerns for their community. “People ARE going to leave our rural communities, they already are. This town is going to resemble a ghost town soon. No kids in the school, no cars to get fuel from the servo, no one to buy groceries at the store, who’s going to buy beer at the pub?” 

One of the businesses from above mentioned that his brother, a farmer, was looking at having to downsize his operations, and with that, people were going to have to be laid off. Something he was concerned about, and was playing heavily on his mind, was that laying off one particular offsider would mean he would probably have to leave town, but that would also mean he took his wife, a local nurse with him. 

The owner of a rural gym also got in contact with me. He told me that at 4am on most days you could find shearers and rouseys in the gym getting warmed up for the day, in fact,  the shearing industry represents 20% of their memberships. In the past twelve months, he has seen one of the local shearing teams close, while other shearers have left town in search of work in the UK. “Businesses like ours can’t stay open if the town shrinks much more, so the locals that remain have fewer services available.” 

There are so many more people I could talk to, that could tell me what effects they are already feeling because of this ban. Almost every person in rural WA is going to feel the impact of banning live export. Frankly, the government has no regard for the agricultural industry or the people in it. We need to keep fighting against the live export ban, as tiring and time consuming as it is going to be.