Livestock Report: Auctions under lockdown and moving into spring

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The Country's Jamie Mackay is joined by PGG Wrightson's GM for Livestock, Peter Moore, to chat about New Zealand's livestock market.

Mackay and Moore looked at selling livestock through the New Zealand Covid-19 lockdown levels* as there were some saleyards that fell into level 3 restrictions zones.

Moore confirmed that it was mostly business as usual at this stage.

Mackay queried if the country was to move to alert level 3, then what would the auction system look like.

Moore said with alert level 3, saleyards would close but online technology still allowed the livestream of saleyards.

Moore was cautious about saying there was potential for saleyards to open under alert level 3 with some restrictions, as that was dependent on MPI and the Ministry of Health.

Listen below:

At this stage there would be enforcement of contact tracing and managing numbers at saleyards. Moore added that it wasn't as bad at this time of year as it was in the off season.

Spring meant larger numbers of stock movement, and Moore was concerned over how to operate and auction feeder calves under lockdown alert levels.

Bobby calves were set to perform averagely in the upcoming season as the international demand for pelts had dropped.

Moore thought the focus should be on quality beef calves to help secure the future of the New Zealand beef industry.

The international demand for commodity foods, such as beef, was still high.

Moore said this was good for New Zealand in the short term, but there was the challenge of the agricultural sector producing added value products and the limited demand for them.

*For more Information on New Zealand's Covid19 response and Alert Levels please visit covid19.govt.nz/