Livestock report: The highs and lows of wet weather

File photo / Tracey Robinson

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Jamie Mackay from The Country had a chat with Kevin Mortensen - or “Morty” as he’s known - the King Country and Taupō regional livestock manager for PGG Wrightson.

To kick off their monthly look at the state of the livestock market, Mackay remarked on the record rainfalls in the Waikato and King Country regions.

Although the rain had been a challenge for livestock farmers, Mortensen said there had also been an upside to the wet.

With issues getting stock through the freezing works due to labour shortages and Covid, a dry summer with plenty of stock to be processed would be another level of challenge altogether, he said.

The number of stock to be processed hadn’t reached forecast levels at the moment but there was sure to be a bottleneck when things got drier, he said.

Mackay said he reckoned the lamb schedule had “fallen out of bed”.

Mortensen said that 12 months ago, the new lamb schedule opened up at $9.80 and this year it opened at $8.80.

Right now, it was sitting at $7.80 a kilo “and you might see another dollar go out of it yet,” he said.

As for the bottom line, Mackay guessed the market had gone from a $150 lamb to a $100 lamb.

Mortensen agreed.

Mackay asked whether beef was holding up.

Mortensen said there seemed to be better markets - although it was still a battle to get any prime cattle processed and some farmers were waiting months rather than weeks.

Mackay lamented that many sheep and beef farmers were getting a hammering from prices, as well as the Government.

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He was concerned that some farmers would find it all too much and simply sell up and that prime livestock-raising land would go to trees.

Mortensen said there was a lot of uncertainty with many farmers not sure where to turn.