Livestock report: Selling season in full swing

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Jamie Mackay from The Country had a quick catch-up with Barry Fox from PGG Wrightson, live from the Oamaru sale yards.

The main topic covered - apart from golf - was the livestock selling season.

Fox emphasised that it's a busy time of year for traditional beef calf sales and pointed out that he had 1100 calves on the yard right then.

Mackay asked about the season in North Otago and noted that the east coast of the South Island had had a pretty good grass growing season.

He asked if farmers were pushing up demand for beef calves as a result,?

Fox reckoned the good season was driving demand, especially with the ample amount of feed available.

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Mackay then turned to the issue for beef and sheep farmers of getting stock in for processing. He asked when space would open up again for farmers.

Fox reckoned there'd been a slight easing recently.

The abundance of feed available meant there probably wouldn't be a logjam at the meat companies and the flow-through would free up over the next three months.

As a parting aside, Mackay wanted to know what he'd get for a really good lamb through the works at the moment.

Fox guessed about $160 to $180 for a good heavy lamb and he said forward contracts coming out now looked very positive for farmers.