Payoff in sight for dry stock farmers

A dramatic reversal of fortunes has brought a smile to the faces of sheep farmers and worry lines to the brows of their dairy colleagues reports The Taranaki Daily. It has been a long while since drystock farmers have had something to smile about, but while they may not yet be wearing ear-to-ear grins, there is at least the flicker of a smile on the faces of Taranaki's sheep and beef farmers, says Affco buyer Howard Bracegirdle, of Inglewood. "Drystock farmers are on a roll at the moment with their lamb prices," he said. Multiple factors are driving up lamb prices, Mr Bracegirdle says. "There is now a world shortage of lamb because in many cases, farmers have had a gut's full of farming them. It's a pretty labour-intensive industry. The drought had a big effect and really knocked lambing percentages around last season."The kill is expected to be down a good 20 per cent across the country, so all of a sudden, lamb is selling really well and those sheep farmers who have stuck with the industry are finally getting rewarded for a fair bit of work.There is talk of farmers mating their hoggets again, so that could build numbers up, but it will take a year or two to get back to where we were a few years ago. Across the board, beef prices are probably $45-$50 per head better than they were last year, Mr Bracegirdle says."The kill is ahead of last year. The big worry is with the Americans."From June to August, they could be killing an extra 15,000 dairy cows per week because they are trying to slow milk production down. Therefore they are having this massive kill, which could affect our grinding beef, manufacturing cow and even bull beef."Hide prices are down 45-50% on this time last year. The start to the weaner cattle season is also indicative of confidence in the beef market with strong demand for store stock, Mr Bracegirdle says. "The first sale for the season at Stratford was pretty strong, where we sold a handful of lighter calves, which made $510. The second sale was a lot stronger again."Good weaner steers made up to $900 per head at Masterton, but these were probably cattle around the 330-kilogram mark and would have been Simmentals or Charolais."The local trade beef scene is very strong, with areas such as the East Coast and the Hawke's Bay having been destocked because of drought conditions. Farmers in Taranaki who have the feed and who can hold their cattle throughout the winter months will have their grazing well and truly paid for. Those cattle will climb in value quite steadily. If there is one thing that hasn't improved over the last decade, says Mr Bracegirdle: the ongoing problem of farmers failing to fill out their TB status cards correctly - a requirement by law."The biggest bugbear in the job these days is the bookwork," he says.