Covid hits Northland meatworks - beef cattle ready but nowhere to go

Tangowahine bull farmer Douglas Conn said tallies of stock being sent to meatworks are well down on last year. Photo / Michael Cunningham

The effects of community Covid infections are being felt throughout the supply chain, with major repercussions from the farm gate through to supermarkets.

Meat processing companies are either shut or only accepting limited numbers of stock and supermarkets are also struggling because of staff shortages.

Countdown director of corporate affairs, safety and sustainability, Kiri Hannifin, said the numbers of people away with sickness was having a major impact.

"People are at the heart of the grocery industry and we have nearly 1000 team members away, either isolating as a positive case or as a household contact. In our Auckland stores we are about 10 per cent down in team numbers, and in our two Auckland distribution centres we are about 45 per cent down.

"Many of our suppliers, growers and manufacturers are also feeling the same sort of impacts, particularly where there are specialist skills impacted like butchers, forklift and truck drivers,'' Hannifin said.

The biggest impact of the Omicron outbreak so far had been in the meat supply chain, she said.

"Customers are likely to see gaps on our shelves. It's important for customers to remember that Aotearoa produces plenty of meat so there's no need to panic, but there are fewer people working right across the supply chain which obviously impacts how much we can get on to shelves at any one time. The key thing is that there is plenty of food and groceries to go around. It's just taking longer to get through. Please bear with us.''

Empty supermarket shelves are a common sight at the moment. Photo / Supplied

Farmers were facing a "perfect storm'' of factors preventing the normal flow of business, which couldn't have happened at a worse time for many. Being unable to send finished cattle to meatworks meant a lack of cashflow to be able to buy in new cattle from weaner fairs that were only held at this time of year. They were also facing potential income losses as cattle were losing weight if there was not enough feed to maintain their finishing weights.

Staffing problems at meatworks had been greatly compounded by Covid-19, with throughput either greatly reduced or stopped completely.

The main companies processing meat from Northland were all impacted.

Auckland Meat Processors, which processes meat from Northland for the local market and stocks supermarkets, declined to comment. Affco, which operates the meatworks at Moerewa, did not respond to emailed questions by the deadline.

A spokesman for Silver Fern Farms, which processes meat for export and has a plant at Dargaville which has cut the numbers of animals accepted for slaughter because of staffing issues, said the company was working through issues arising from Covid-19.

"We have always taken a precautionary approach to our operations irrespective of the alert level. We have stringent health and safety protocols and procedures to keep our sites safe for our people, including using rapid antigen testing at all our sites, and extensive use of PPE, physical distancing and temperature testing.

"We have been regularly communicating the potential risks of any disruption to our suppliers. Our network of processing facilities does provide us the option to move animals between plants depending on local conditions. Our focus will be moving animals off-farm, and our priority will be addressing any areas of potential animal welfare risk and supporting our fully shared and valued suppliers.

"We're asking all suppliers to reach out to their livestock rep so they can plan early."

Stock agents have reported huge backlogs of cattle waiting to go to meatworks.

"There is a massive backlog. We are not able to keep anyone happy,'' said one stock agent, who did not wish to be identified.

"I would normally be booking in 1200 to 1400 cattle a week. Last week only about 400 could go to plants further south.''

Stock trucks were on standby waiting for loads which were being cancelled at short notice.

"A lot of people don't realise how much it affects everyone.''

Silver Fern Farms at Dargaville has cut the numbers of animals accepted for slaughter because of staffing issues due to Covid -19. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Bull farmer Richard Downey, who farms near Aranga on the west coast north of Dargaville, said it had been tough going.

It hadn't rained for months and he had been feeding out supplementary feed to some of the younger stock.

"I need to get rid of the bigger ones so the younger ones come on, but I can't get them into the works. It's been like that for the last couple of months. The bulls are losing weight and there is nothing more I can do about it. I do hope they will be able to go soon," Downey said.

Tangowahine bull farmer Douglas Conn said tallies being sent to meatworks are well down on last year, with very few cattle being sent in the last couple of weeks.

"I still have a backlog of cattle to send before winter. This is having a flow-on effect on my bull replacement policy, which in turn leaves store bull farmers in a similar situation.

"Luckily we did get some rain, so feed is not critical, but west coast farmers didn't get as much and are really struggling.

"The big issue for us is the bulls keep getting bigger and more aggressive so it becomes a lot more work and more problems in handling them.

"I'm not as agile as I used to be and it's a bit harder to jump a set of rails to get out of the way,'' Conn said.

His normal farming practice was to fatten bulls to 2 or 2 1/2 years.

"Older bulls start to become harder to handle and misbehave. We are having to spend more time on fence repairs as they are doing a lot of damage.

"Feeding supplements is not an option because they need to be kept apart from each other.''

Okahu bull farmer John Blackwell, who is vice-president of Northland Federated Farmers, said he had also been badly affected, with only about a third of his normal stock numbers being able to be sent to the works.

"It seems to be bull farmers have been affected the worst. They seem to be doing some cows and heifers but are not doing as many bull kills at the moment.

"Staffing has been an issue for a long time as well as breakdowns, but now with Covid it is much worse,'' Blackwell said.

Health and safety was an issue as well as animal welfare on the farm, he said.

"The bulls don't stop growing and they become more aggressive. I've had bulls charging at me on the bike twice now, which would not normally happen as those animals would normally be gone.''

Blackwell said farm animals were not like "fruit that could be allowed to go rotten".

Dairy farmers were receiving such a good payout this year that they would be likely to try to milk longer, which might delay the usual stream of cull cows that would normally be starting shortly, he said.

"However, the kill is well behind and there is a huge backlog building.''