It’s business as usual for the country’s meat processors as they gear up for another busy season of processing non-replacement calves with spring calving due to start in July.
Meat Industry Association manager of industrial operations and innovation Richard McColl said companies will be out engaging with their suppliers to get them signed up for the season.
“We’re very much expecting a similar season to last year in terms of numbers, capacity, production.”
He is not aware of any staffing issues with any of the meat companies with the past 12 months being reasonably settled after the issues the industry experienced early on post-covid.
“Across the board, the 2023-2024 season has been very good with labour and we’re expecting that to continue into the following season.”
The meat companies are also looking at what they can do better, based on the experiences of the past two seasons and refining the collection process to make it a better experience for farmers, he said.
There are also no issues with the prospect of more calves needing to be processed, he said.
In April, LIC and DairyNZ released data showing dairy farmers have achieved the highest six-week in-calf rate and lowest not-in-calf rate on record.
The average six-week in-calf rate is sitting at 69.3% for the 2023-24 season, up 2.7% from last season (66.6%), while the not-in-calf rate is down to 15%.
“There’s a few less dairy cows around so the increase in calves will probably offset that. We’re not seeing that as an issue in terms of increased numbers.”
