Preparations for Coonamble's prime cattle sale scheduled for tomorrow (Friday 3 September) were thrown into chaos late yesterday afternoon following the late postponement of the Dubbo cattle sale due to a saleyard worker testing positive to covid.

"Our agents received notice late yesterday afternoon and we scrambled to find out what was going on," said President of Coonamble Associated Agents Peter O'Connor.

"We had 1000 head booked for tomorrow but whichever way we looked at it we couldn't run it without compromising the situation in terms of safety or market price."

"We're doing all our due diligence now as far as vendors, buyers, scanners and other personnel are concerned, " he said.

The Dubbo Regional Livestock Market has been listed as a venue of concern for any person who attended the sale at any time on Thursday 26 August. NSW Health will be incontact with customers and staff deemed close or casual contacts, however others who attended on that date are being asked to get tested and self-isolate until they get a negative result.

The Dubbo sale has been held over until Saturday 4 September, with the almost 2500 head of cattle that had already been delivered to the yards being kept on feed.

This will allow time for people to receive their test results and extra conditions have been put in place, including showing proof of a negative test result at the entry gate.

• Buyers, agents and essential staff will be back at Dubbo and Coonamble saleyards in coming days, but without the freedoms of sales like this one at Coonamble in May 2021.

Mr O'Connor said this morning that the Coonamble sale is now likely to run next week.

"The main thing is to get all our normal buyers here,” he said.

"We're considering all our options but if all goes well we’ll be running on Wednesday 8 September following the Dunedoo sale.”

"We are also trying to avoid clashing with the Tamworth and Carcoar sales that got established on a Friday during the drought," Mr O’Connor said.

Agents have been busy contacting vendors around the area.

While measures such as mandatory check-in and mask-wearing and only approved persons to be allowed on site are already in place, it is possible that further restrictions may apply at the Coonamble Saleyards