Meat works backlog: Up to six-week delay in cattle processing

Photo / 123RF

By Sally Murphy of RNZ

Processing capacity at meat works around the country is returning to normal but a backlog remains.

There had been a backlog for months due to staffing shortages as workers isolated with Covid-19.

That made it harder for farmers to offload stock, which caused huge stress, especially in areas where feed levels were tight.

An update provided to farmers by Beef and Lamb and the Meat Industry Association showed staff levels were now returning to normal and capacity from plant to plant was ranging from 80 to 100 per cent.

Meat Industry Association spokesperson Richard McColl said there currently wasn't any pressure on processors when it came to the sheep and lamb cull, but there was still about a four-to-six week delay in cattle processing.

"That said, we are still 1.5 million lambs behind last season, so there is still a lot to process, but it seems farmers are looking to hold onto them at the moment to put weight on them, especially in those areas where there is feed available.

McColl said there was a bit of concern about what was going to happen when bobby calves came into the processing stream.

"Bobby calves in the North Island come into the stream about mid-June and it's about a month later in the South Island so we are about three-to-four weeks away from the peak.

"There is concern that there is still a lot of lambs to kill and normally we would see a decrease in the amount of lambs coming through as the bobby numbers increase but that is not the case this year."

Farmers should keep in touch with their processors to be aware of delays, McColl said.

The industry, alongside the Ministry for Primary Industries, was also monitoring international supply chains as frozen meat stores around the country began to fill up.

McColl said the storage situation was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

"I don't get a sense that we're going backwards but we're certainly not eating into what we've got into store - so the stores are pretty full and we're just keeping our head above the water at the moment."

He said it wouldn't take much for the situation to change so it was something the industry was monitoring closely.

- RNZ