Mr Franks yesterday said Wodonga Rendering management had told him he could no longer operate a knackery on an export abattoir premises because of changes in regulations.

His work had involved disposing of crippled cattle which he would destroy and take back to his leased premises for processing.

He will close the knackery tomorrow.

“It has all come as a bit of a shock,” Mr Franks said.

“After running around picking up sick and injured stock for 12 years, seven days a week, it has hit me pretty hard.

“The service will certainly be missed.

“Other knackeries can pick up the stock, but I’ve got 40 old clients who I sell my meat to.

“They include greyhound trainers from Wangaratta to Wagga and up to Sydney.”

Mr Franks said the Corryong knackery had already asked him whether he wanted a job.

He owns a farm at Bonegilla and a small business in Wodonga.

Mr Franks started at the Wodonga meatworks in 1979.

“There is only a certain number of people who can do a knackery,” he said.

“I didn’t handle dead stock — if I couldn’t pull up to it in my vehicle I didn’t take it.”

A Wodonga Rendering spokesman said the knackery was independent of the business that employed 350 staff and produced 27,000 tonnes of meat a year.

“It no longer works in with what we do and the lease was up,” he said.

“It was never part of our business.

“We rented a small room to him for years.”

The plant last year received $1 million in state funding to help install a $4.23 million tri-generation power plant.