Canterbury meat plants season over

 More than $3.5 million will disappear from Canterbury's economy as SFF's shuts down parts of three sheepmeat plants four months early reports The Press. About 250 workers will find themselves out of a job 16 weeks earlier this year as sheep numbers fall and farmers, buoyed by recent rain, keep stock because they can feed them for longer. The lamb and mutton-cutting rooms at Belfast and at Pareora south of Timaru, and a lamb chain at Fairton near Ashburton, will close for the season by next week. The Meat Workers Union's Canterbury president, Bill Watt, said he could not remember the cutting rooms closing in March before. It was usually July and sometimes August. The season had lasted a little more than five months, just over half the usual nine-month season. "It's quite devastating for those people to be finished in March. It's going to be a long winter for these people. It's very sad," he said. Staff, who earned between $700 and $1200 a week gross, knew the season would be shorter this year, but still expected to work until at least May. Some workers usually picked up other work between seasons, but that would be hard to achieve this time, given the state of the economy, Watt said. Rain in February had boosted grass growth. Farmers could now afford to feed more stock and were choosing to keep them for longer. About 700,000 fewer lambs were killed in the South Island by February 21, a 10.5 % reduction on last season, Watt said.