There are animals to feed when feed is short, the lack of water and these all combine to get the stress levels right up there. Photo / file
There are animals to feed when feed is short, the lack of water and these all combine to get the stress levels right up there. Photo / file
It is times like these the relationship between farmers and the people they do business with are tested.
The livestock market is down as you would expect with drought and meat plants' capacity to process full.
Independent Whanganui livestock trader, commentator and farmer David Cotton has seen it worse overthe years but that, he said, does not make things any easier.
"Things are backing up on the farm for many and I have seldom seen farmers under so much stress," Cotton said.
"Managing a drought is tough, we all know it's not easy.
"There are animals to feed when feed is short, the lack of water and these all combine to get the stress levels right up there.
"Then add in the problem of getting stock processed at the meat plants. It's almost impossible to get heavy ox killed with a wait of at least three to six weeks and ewes are the same.
"No farmer wants to see stock in distress. There are large numbers of mutton being trucked to the South Island by one meat company due to a lack of killing space and the large demand to have stock killed.
"China has pulled out of the mutton market, reducing the desire for meat companies to process when so many other classes of stock are also waiting."
And it is not as simple as individual farmers trucking stock off to other areas to graze. Who will take them with many other farmers in the same boat, and then there is the expense of trucking them.
Cotton said the ongoing threat of further regulatory control from central and regional government, climate change and fresh water issues were only compounding the growing problem for farmers.
"There is also a large number of banks proving to be difficult to deal with of late," he said. "I have had good, reliable clients of mine struggling to lift their overdraft to enable them to pay staff, truck stock off drought-ridden farms.
"Many of these clients have been with their banks for years, the banks know they are good for the money, so why are they being difficult?
"It's times like these you really do find out how strong the relationship you have with the people you do business with - banks and meat companies, for instance.
"Those farmers who have chased the extra 10cents/kg to kills them when everyone wants them [the stock], now find there is no space to kill them when nobody wants them.
David Cotton: "Things are backing up on the farm for many and I have seldom seen farmers under so much stress."
"Those who support other means of selling prime stock, those with supply agreements [contracts to supply] with meat companies are receiving the space allocations.
"Space will free up again and banks will loosen the purse strings again, but farmers will remember who helped them out when things got tough.
"The most value in an umbrella is when it is raining, there is no value when it's not.
"There is a lot of stress out there, but it's often difficult to see - farmers aregoodathidingit," Cotton said.
