Demand sees prices rise in July

Store lambs were the real stars in the price rises.

July was the month when stock prices started to rise.

Store lambs were the real stars with prices rising early in the month and staying there.

There were good numbers of quality store lambs coming forward considering the effects of the facial eczema outbreak during autumn and the losses of new lambs in last September's 200mm downpour. Even lesser-quality, longer-term lambs sold well with few pens selling for less than $80.

Prime lambs also rose as meat schedules rose after some months of flat prices. Again the quality has been good in the face of feed shortages caused by the autumn drought and strong winds during the month drying out what rain there was.

As scanning finished and the supply reduced, prime ewe prices lifted by $10 to $12 in two or three weeks.

Another effect of the feed shortage has been an increase in the numbers of five-year-old scanned-in-lamb ewes on offer. Perhaps surprisingly, most of them went to Hawke's Bay buyers.

PGG Wrightson agent and auctioneer Neil Common said the feature of cattle sales of both prime and store during July was the sharp rise in demand for bulls, especially R2 friesians.

This indicated a shortage of cattle generally caused by both a big cow kill in 2013's drought and previous low returns and costly milk powder pushing many calf-rearers to give up.

With the dairy downturn other farmers who took on dairy grazers during the winter are turning to bulls instead as dairy farmers keep their cows home to cut costs. Farmers are also likely to keep suitable bull calves for rearing and feeding them with milk out of their vats rather than sending them off as $30 or $40 bobbies.

The dairy downturn has also seen more in-calf dairy cows offered at prime sales in July.

However, overall the numbers of cattle through Stortford Lodge have been lower than usual with no cattle at all at the prime sale of July 25.

Beef-breed in-calf cows have been selling above schedule prices meaning most of them will be kept for breeding rather than going for processing.

Away from the saleyards, Mr Common said the lack of grass growth was continuing to cause concern.

"We had good rain in July but the high winds have blown it all away. At least a warm and dry winter with no feed is better than a cold and wet one with no feed."

Mr Common said ewe-scanning rates were down this year because of the effects of facial eczema. He had heard reports of ewes dying after giving birth from the stress of this disease.

Higher than average numbers of dries were showing up in mated hoggets because of eczema.

This was not helping farmer morale already hit by low returns for early lambs and then the drought, he said.

Looking ahead to the rest of August, Mr Common is expecting a lift in cattle numbers as the first of the yearlings appear.

"We all have our fingers crossed for good rain to set us up for spring. However, we don't want a repeat of last year's lamb-killing September downpour."-