WA Liberal MP Rick Wilson stands other members of the Albany community stand behind Keep the Sheep spokesman Ben Sutherland, left,  Railways Football and Sporting Club President Wayne Stubber, and Alan McFarland at the stadium renaming announcement on Monday.

WESTERN Australia’s pro-live sheep export campaign Keep the Sheep will have a football stadium named after it, thanks to a Katanning businessman.

Former Katanning Shire Council president and furniture retailer Alan McFarland won the right to name Albany’s Railways Football and Sporting Club oval for 12 months in a raffle.

“The first prize was to name the stadium for a year… and there is three night’s accommodation and day out with the footy club.”

Mr McFarland was the Katanning Shire president when the Katanning saleyards was opened about 10 years ago. Any councillor with a declared interest in the sheep industry couldn’t serve on the council’s saleyard committee, but Mr McFarland didn’t have that issue.

“So that’s how I got involved in the sheep industry, with the saleyards.”

Mr McFarland said he was initially at a loss as to what to name the stadium with its location too remote for him to name after his business so he opted to highlight the importance of live exports to the regional community.

“As far as the direct benefit for our region, Keep the Sheep was probably the best thing that we could have done to highlight how they’re treating regional Australia.

“Albany is a marginal seat at the state level and we’ve got a state election here next year in March, and possibly even a federal election,” he said.

Federal Member for O’Connor Rick Wilson said Mr McFarland could have named the stadium after himself, or his business, after winning the Railways’ raffle to rename their home ground.

“But Alan knows that country towns in the Great Southern and Wheatbelt regions of the state rely heavily on agriculture, including live sheep exports that fill a vital niche in the Western Australian industry.

“I applaud his decision to name the ground #KEEPTHESHEEP Stadium, and Railways for coming up with a unique fundraising initiative that captured the imagination of sports lovers throughout Albany and beyond,” he said.

“Today’s naming of #KEEPTHESHEEP Stadium is the latest evidence that Labor’s live exports ban is not only a grave concern among farmers, but also more widely among regional communities whose local economies stand to suffer from the ALP’s ideological and non-scientific approach to animal welfare.

“The WA Liberals and I will not rest until Prime Minister Albanese’s ban on live exports is overturned.

The raffle earned the Railways Football and Sporting Club $61,000, which will largely be put toward refurbishing and extending its ageing club facilities on Lockyer Avenue in Centennial Park.

Mr Wilson said the proposed banning of live sheep exports by sea unfairly targets Western Australia, whose farmers produce by far the most sheep for export.