Rumours that last Friday’s closure of the Wallangarra plant now enables the company to expand its Tamworth operation to two shifts a day have been refuted by Mr Jackson, who said the plants have two very different operations.

“The Wallangarra plant is a bone-out mutton operation, whereas Tamworth is bone-in lamb,” he said.

“Wallangarra was always set up as a mutton plant for Queensland sheep suppliers, but the drought, live exports, the exodus from sheep farming to cattle farming, the strong dollar and the wool market are all conspiring against us.”

Mr Jackson said the Wallangarra closure is due to a desperate shortage of export sheep. What is available costs far too much to be economically viable, and the plant would remain closed until such time as trading conditions become sustainable.

Mr Jackson could not set a date on when the plant will reopen, and said predictions that the closure could be for three to eights months were speculation.

“It would have been reckless to keep going, given the amount of money we were losing,” he said.

Nevertheless the short notice has infuriated the workers and their families, with some saying they would have had time to seek other employment if they knew in advance the plant was closing.

Mr Jackson said the managers had been in talks all week, right up until Thursday afternoon, considering alternatives to the closure but none were seen as viable. One option was to increase the number of goats processed at the plant. Goats already occupied the production two days per week, supplementing the sheep operation, but Mr Jackson said the goat-trading situation is also horrible.

He said the repercussions for the community are unfortunate, with the majority of the 190 laid-off workers coming from Wallangarra, Tenterfield and Stanthorpe. Some will have the option of relocating to the Tamworth plant.