THE Naracoorte Regional Livestock Exchange is receiving another upgrade with the wooden cattle selling pens to be replaced with new steel pens.
Naracoorte Lucindale Council director of operations Steve Bourne said after three unsuccessful attempts to gain federal government grants the council had decided to fund the upgrade itself in several stages.
Half of the pens (72) are to be completed by September with the project costing $800.000, with the other half of the selling pens to be replaced in 2020-21.
"We are spreading the cost out over a couple of years with the work to be done away from the busy times," Mr Bourne said.
The new pens were designed by Kattle Gear, with Bordertown engineering firm Tatiara Industrial Repairs, manufacturing and installing them.
"The design allows us to have gates between the pens rather than fences so we will be able to open them up and clean along the row rather than cleaning each pen individually," he said.
"We will be able to get a greater depth of 250mm to 300mm of soft flooring improving animal welfare too."
It has been a big year at the Naracoorte Regional Livestock Exchange with $152 million worth of livestock sold through the saleyards in 2018-19.
Sheep and lamb numbers are well up at 447,701 head compared to 416,316 head in 2017-18.
In 2018-19, 83,956 cattle were sold through the yards, up from 70,062 the previous financial year.