Livestock agents, saleyard operators and local trade buyers in the north are hampered by a lack of store and finished cattle.
They say the shortage is both seasonal and significant as land use changes away from hill country farming are cutting into cattle numbers.
Prime cattle for the giant Auckland beef retail market are in short supply and agents have a host of reasons.
“It has been a very good winter so far and there are still stacks of baleage available, so the contrast with last winter couldn’t be stronger,” Carrfields Livestock Northland representative Tim Williamson said.
“This time last year we had 1800mm of rainfall and this year it has been 600mm.
“Farmers with store and fat cattle are holding on to them and more are being bought and sold in the paddocks rather than the yards,” said PGG Wrightson regional livestock manager Bernie McGahan.
Williamson described current cattle yardings in Northland as “rats and mice”, saying the shortages were driving up liveweight prices for younger cattle in the range $3.50-$4/kg.
He sold a line of Angus Friesian-cross steers at 470kg average for $3.50/kg, a price he described as “unheard of” in previous Julys.
The weekly cattle sales at Wellsford and Kaikohe would normally have 50 full pens and are now down to 15, or more pens but with just a handful in each one.
McGahan said buyer demand is now switching to feeder calves and that farmers with good feed supplies will carry through yearlings to spring, just a month away.
Fat cattle prices up to $7/kg to the works are tempting farmers to put on as much weight as possible, risking the wetter months of August and September.
“This time last year farm conditions were horrible and this year the store prices are 60c better,” he said.
Independent agents report that AFFCO Moerewa is doing only two days a week and the local trade buyers for AMP Otahuhu are scrambling to find prime candidates for killing.
“I have never seen such a shortage of cattle in the yards right across the upper North Island, including Taranaki and Waikato, because of planting trees on the hills,” retired agent John Dixon said.
“Near me in Kaipara there’s 250 hectares going under solar panels.
“Emissions trading is going to wipe one industry out, namely cattle breeding, to establish another.”
Another longtime Rodney district agent said the NAIT records showed that 50% of all registered cattle owners in Auckland province are on 5ha or less, and a further 27% on 20ha or less.
Hill country farms have been decimated by damaging storms and farmers are tempted to sell up by high land values in proximity to Auckland.
The slope grazing regulations are hanging over everyone, with many older farmers saying that will be the end of their tenure.
“It is like a perfect storm – rebuilding cattle numbers after M bovis and Cyclone Gabrielle, along with pine tree planting and farm subdivision,” Williamson said.
“This time a year ago every farm was saturated and quitting their heavy beasts. This year they have plenty of feed and soil conditions are good.”
Northland Federated Farmers president Colin Hannah said farm situations in the province are very patchy.
While many have good pasture covers, others were caught short in autumn and have fed out the conserved feed from summer.
One of the biggest structural changes to Northland’s beef industry is the Fonterra no-kill calf policy and the provisions for pickups and prospects for rearing.
“We don’t know how that will play out during calving,” he said.
On that matter, Williamson said fewer rearable calves are coming to market because of sexed semen use by dairy farmers and the crossbred dairy herds.
“It’s very tricky at the moment, finding cattle in any numbers,” he said.
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