It seemed slightly bizarre that the biggest news to come out of going from Alert level 4 to 3 was the queues at the takeaway fast food outlets and cafes - even to the point where police had to instigate traffic controls. There must be a lot of very poor cooks and coffee makers out there.
What I had been hoping to see happen, along with many others, was the instigation of saleyard sales. For our region, and I imagine the rest of the country is the same, it is now six weeks since stock last went through the saleyards. So the news that we could be in alert level three for potentially three more weeks came as a bit of a shock. I do have a bias around this situation as we have several hundred sheep on that we hadn’t planned to have by now.
Ewes were booked into the works over six weeks ago and show no sign of moving and with the lambs are about to make serious inroads into saved winter pasture. However, I know other farmers are in a similar situation and this is being repeated up and down the country.
This is being severely compounded by what has now become a very dry autumn. We have neighbours around on the Central Plains Water Scheme who are still irrigating. Admittedly if they were having to pay for pumping they would probably be thinking twice, however, it does illustrate to dry situation of the soil.
Talking with our local stock agent he mentioned that they are having a conference call soon to discuss the situation and his tone sounded distinctly stressed. Given the ‘rules’ do allow for livestock selling, it is looking that there has been a lack of imagination or leadership somewhere to have let things progress this far. I just wonder, given the lack of decent transportable feed around the country, how the powers that be think farmers are going to keep stock fed, especially as they seem to think agriculture is going to achieve greater importance in helping to get New Zealand out of this economic bind we are heading into.
What bugs me is that this should have been a very predictable situation and some-one should have acted. I believe it should have been industry as we have been shown plenty of times in the past that MPI do not have the expertise to act promptly in situations of urgency and don’t seem to be well connected to grassroots. It would have been nice to think a positive spin off of the M-Bovis eradication programme would have been a better understanding of farming systems. This may be happening at the farm level but whether it is working its way up the chain seems doubtful.
Beef + Lamb along with DairyNZ sent out a joint press release (see here) providing advice to sheep and dairy alike. However, given that they recognise that there is already a problem here I wonder why there has not been a greater emphasis before now on getting yards working. Given the potential space and controls that could have been put in place a workable solution could have been put in place before now.
The options for stock feed are now starting to be limited to PKE (sheep are not a fan of this in my limited experience) and grains. Both of these are expensive options when it comes to looking at maintenance diets and unfortunately, although the schedules held this week (even venison which still has a $7 in front of it despite my gloomy predictions), prices have been falling and so even if farmers can hold condition on stock their values are not going to be increasing. And the reality is most stock will be losing condition. With the ‘works’ way behind catching up to demand, yards closed and what feed available being expensive at best and inappropriate at worst farmers have very limited options.
The one redeeming feature at present is despite things being dry at least the temperatures are still very mild for the time of year and at least some grass growth may persist for longer than would be normally expected.
The news that the Government is to invest a further $15 million into upgrading rural broadband is welcomed. Up to this point in recent years communications has been an area where the rich have been getting richer. The deficiency in coverage has been highlighted by some rural families being unabled to utilise the online teaching services.
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8 Comments
Beef and Lamb are a joke , too busy trying to justify their existence rather than doing anything of use. Couple that with the total incompetence of Minster O'Connor who lives in a parallel universe to the rural heartland and is it any wonder that there appears to be no progress in regards to sale yards opening. The online selling platforms are not that successful. The cold reality is that it is better to send your stock to the yards where they actually sell rather than sit on them in hope with them advertised on-line. This drought is ugly , widespread and relentlessly stubborn and with no tangible store stock outlet there are massive problems developing. Potential purchasers are being merciless. At least with the yards the market price is set on the day and vendors are more accepting due in no small part to neccessity. Different game completely online , different psychology involved. Difficult times
Jezza, what do you think that B+LNZ could do better? The online platforms are great, it just seems to me that some of the farmers moaning about it are having trouble adjusting to the current drought pricing for stock - saleyards opening won't help this I'm afraid Jizza. I agree that the drought is ugly, and it seems to bring the worst out in some people, but you can't blame no rain on covid-19. It's going to be a tough winter for some, and tougher for others if they don't make an attitude adjustment. :-)
The online platforms are pretty good. If you have a stable internet Bidr has been worth a go. For vendor and purchaser. At least if the vendor doesnt like the price they are still on farm and a return trip to home isnt required.
I think I could get hooked on this buying stock from home. Online shopping. Yay.
Maybe a dumb question - if theres a drought and hence feed shortage plus killing slowed by Virus issues its going to be hard to find anyone to take stock? Its a horrible problem but would sale yards being open make any difference? Ive heard of some stock selling for VV low prices due to drought and lack of killing space. As the comment above says any buyer who has ability to buy stock is/can be merciless - the free market at work. Think of those who had oil contracts last week and no where to store it - you would have had to pay people to take the animals away as oil contract holders had to.
exactly , who is in a position to buy? Maybe some finishing farms , if they got their older stock away to the works , and got some grass growth.
Or someone gambling on a warm winter , but so far the rain pattern doesnt really show signs of changing . one high after another. I don't think we can plan on decent rain before July, and if its cold by then , not much good.
Then ,there's some that will half starve the stock through winter , hoping to build them up in spring .
Yip. Couldnt agree more Jack Lumber. Lets face it a lot of folk left their run too late. It never pays to be too greedy. And I think people were caught out thinking the schedules would lift, it would rain, covid wouldnt reach nz. It pays to have a good bit of healthy pessimism up your sleeve. Be prepared to sacrifice some profit, just in case...this year there have been a few just in cases happen.
My healthy pessimism paid off this year. When there was a smidge of rain (it couldnt even be called a smidgeon) agents were very keen on talking up lambs. So long as they have shade and shelter they will be fine mate. $9/kg in winter is a certainty, you cant lose! They even rose to over $3 /kg store at one point. The fever was high. The smell of that $9/kg was palpable. Pneumonia and excema be damned. The profits would be huge.....
Saleyards would only make it easier (or possible) to shift the stock off-farm. Once at the yards you are at the mercy of the market, or face bringing your stock home after a two day sightseeing trip. Expensive. I think the saleyards being opened will make things easier, but will also highlight the severity of the supply/demand problem at the moment.
One small glimmer of hope for the NI is that the winters can be kind sometimes. Heres hoping.
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