Last week, Fletcher International Exports announced that 300 jobs would be lost at the company's Dubbo plant, and the Tatiara Meat Company stood down all of its 400 staff for the day last Friday.

Abattoir job losses in other states have also been reported.

Since 1990, the national sheep flock has declined by 4.2pc per year or around four million head per year.

In June this year, Fletchers WA was forced to re-structure its business and sack 100 casual staff and although low stock numbers have pushed the Narrikup operation to change from two nine-hour shifts to one 10-hour shift, five days per week, general manager Greg Cross said no more staff would be laid off.

"There are interesting days ahead but we will just keep chipping away," Mr Cross said.

"There will be no job losses here."

Mr Cross said the Narrikup processing plant was processing about 8500 sheep per day last year but at the moment were processing about 5200 per day.

He said there was no denying that times were tough, but in the short term the company would try to be vigilant with processing to eliminate any waste.

Mr Cross urged producers to also restrict the number of stock coming through that were not up to quality standards, with measles remaining a big issue for the processor.

"The hardest thing is the low stock population; we went through a similar scenario in 2001 after years of drought where we had to cut back to one shift and went back to two shifts in 2003," he said.

"There are indications now that farmers are holding on to their breeding stock and you have to look for the positives.

"We can only hope that the spiralling downward trend plateaus and we can consolidate and get some confidence among processors and producers."

Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU) organiser John Da Silva said given WA was in the same situation as the east with stock numbers, the organisation was concerned that job losses could also occur in WA.

Mr Da Silva placed blame with the live export industry.

"Live shippers are hurting us and we can never stress that enough," Mr Da Silva said.

"I wouldn't be surprised if shifts had to be reduced in WA but we could see it coming, because there has been a shift away from sheep to cropping."

WAMMCO chief executive Coll MacRury said although times were extremely tough for the cooperative, they would battle through without having to sacrifice jobs.