BARHAM livestock producer and advocate Lauren Mathers has returned to the board of the Murray Plains Meat Co-op, six months after standing down as its chair.

And she says the project, already seven years in the making, is now within reach of opening, hopefully by April next year.

The co-op’s micro-abattoir is the brainchild of 30 producers, stretching from Deniliquin and Wakool to Boun, who ai...