The Sheep Deer and Cattle Report

Rural News

The Sheep Deer and Cattle Report: Some rain in dry areas but sheep meat markets still weak

12th Jan 16, 11:18am by Tony Chaston

LAMB

New Year pricing continues to weaken even though the UK Easter chilled production is underway, but frozen product stocks are slowly reducing at last.

Domestic lamb consumption figures continues to fall and the idea of a “eat NZ lamb day” has merit especially now at these softer prices.

NZ Meat Board slaughter statistics show the lamb kill is well advanced compared to last year (+18% at 28 Nov) as the falling schedule encouraged farmers to kill at lighter weights, but recent rain could slow numbers offered.

Demand for store lambs has lifted at the saleyards, and numbers of cull ewes is falling as most of the weaning is now over (mutton kill 68% ahead).

The important Chinese market for mutton and lower quality lamb cuts remains under pressure, and coupled with poor pelt and casing prices is having a big influence on poor returns that with mutton is at the lowest for 6 years.

In the north the store ewe market has started and sound replacement breeding sheep were purchased for under $100 a head at the Matawhero sale.

WOOL
The easing currency helped boost the North Island wool sale with prices for crossbred wool indicators lifting, and building lambs wool volumes selling at good prices.

Recent strong wool pricing has been a welcome boost for sheep breeders and lead last years values by 80c/clean for crossbreds and 127c for lambs.

Volumes of main shear will soon hit the market and with colour in the fleece increasing some easing of pricing is expected.

BEEF
More easing of beef schedules as in the US high prices are making traders nervous, and uncertainty caused by the Chinese sharemarket crash has shaken importers confidence in that market.

Prices have held well in the local saleyards for prime steers as seen in the bullock fair at Te Kuiti and scarce numbers of store cattle have kept pricing levels strong.

The big numbers of weaned dairy bulls reared seem to be finding homes at reasonable values, especially up north where many areas have plentiful feed.

DEER

Summer venison schedules seem to have bottomed and sit $45/head up on last year, as processors report good Christmas chilled sales into the traditional European markets.

Processing is now focused on the frozen market sourced from tail end yearling stags, some cull velveters and surplus young females

Quiet optimism is being expressed by deer farmers as prices for both velvet and venison remain firm and early sire stag sales reflects positive prospects for the future.

M2 Bull

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Source: refer to schedule page

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17 Comments

by Andrewj | 13th Jan 16, 9:15am 1452629739

Tony, do you have any answers to the huge increase in China beef purchases in 2015, was it demand driven?
They now appear to have a large stockpile.
Ht, Henry Tull
http://dimsums.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/china-imports-ag-commodity-defla…

http://www.hoosieragtoday.com/china-stockpiles-to-challenge-2016-import…

by Sheepish | 13th Jan 16, 9:32am 1452630764

Given the current price paid to farmers for lamb, surely it's time for a huge marketing and educational effort to get NZ consumption rates up. We now only produce 5 lambs per person and we struggle to sell it at a good price. If we start teaching the younger generation how to prepare and cook lamb now, we would not be almost entirely reliant on the export market now or in the future. It would be a good time to try and get the supermarkets to use lamb as a loss leader to help build internal consumption. I'm always look in envy of the price farmers get in other countries where lambs is internally consumed.

by Sheep Shagger | 13th Jan 16, 9:51am 1452631902

You mean actually doing some promotion like this...?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/103292563

by Andrewj | 13th Jan 16, 10:09am 1452632964

Shaggers, my mates in Aussie have embraced Dorper sheep, not so keen on wool as they used to be. Aussie Lamb is always on sale at Costco at around $4.99 a lb for back leg boneless roast.
If you want a bit of free grazing I could give you a few paddocks for a couple of months, feed up to their bellies. Get my email off David Chaston, freight will probably kill it but offer is there.

http://www.mla.com.au/Prices-markets/Trends-analysis/Sheep-projections

by Sheep Shagger | 13th Jan 16, 3:32pm 1452652351

Thanks for the offer Aj. We are not too bad down here just yet, more a normal summer to date but offer most appreciated none the less. Lamb schedule sitting around $4.80(and falling) which is just hopeless especially for those forced to quit store of at lighter weights. Worst part is this is very familiar territory and there appears to be no significant light at the end of the tunnel. As you may recall a few years back when I started visiting this sight I was very optimistic, not so much now. Its just a matter of hunkering down and hoping for better next year...again!

by Andrewj | 13th Jan 16, 3:44pm 1452653070

If it helps all the farmers I know in the UK are dumping sheep for beef, however now the beef price has dropped they may be rethinking. Big problem is lack of demand, and I think I said that you can get half a lamb at the butchers for £45 and thats a decent lamb.
My super optimistic stock agent is worried about the sheep industry, mind you he lost some optimism after a brush with the dairy industry.

>>
‘Any Possible Margins In Beef Farming This Year Will Disappear In 2016’ – Teagasc
Beef farmers are facing a tough 2016 as global demand for beef will not match supplies worldwide, according to the latest research from Teagasc.

Figures from the Teagasc Annual Review and Outlook 2016 show that while beef margins were up in 2015, the bigger picture of supply and demand will see farmers impacted by increasing worldwide supplies next year.

After three years of expansion in the dairy herd in Ireland, the impact of this will be felt in Ireland and in Europe next year, Kevin Hanrahan said at the presentation of figures.

Over two-thirds of EU beef comes from the dairy sector, he said, and the herd numbers for September this year show that the dairy herd in Ireland is up 11% while the suckler herd is up 2%.

“The supply outlook is for extra beef supplies, especially in the second half of the year (2016).

“There is a positive demand for beef worldwide, but it is not quite keeping pace with supply.”
https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/coveney-admits-2016-will-challengi…

http://beefandlamb.ahdb.org.uk/markets/market-news/

by Sheep Shagger | 13th Jan 16, 3:53pm 1452653590

I agree lack of demand is the core issue. It seems to me we are betwixt and between. We haven't managed to differentiate our grassfed product sufficiently to extract enough premiums beyond commodity but we lack the finance to do so effectively. So we are left with only a behind farmgate productivity strategy which only seems to result in us running faster to stand still or selling the value chain for short term gain to foreign interests in a valiant hope they will feed us back some crumbs. Don't see a coherent plan anywhere...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/opinion/75845974/little-change-…

by Andrewj | 13th Jan 16, 3:59pm 1452653963

We could start by not selling anything we wouldn't eat ourselves.
I look at the ram lambs on crops about here in August, I wonder who is going to chew the way through them and if they will ever eat lamb again.

by Sheep Shagger | 13th Jan 16, 4:09pm 1452654571

Yes, neither you or I would eat them, we would eat the little fat ewe lambs. That is typical of the volume not value mentality that dominates. I also think we have been left behind in the massive shift in food retail dynamics. The whole supermarket chain model is under huge pressure and we are being squeezed like a pip. We should be looking to alternate pathways to consumer.

by rastus1 | 13th Jan 16, 10:08am 1452632919

...education will put people off meat, not on. Younger genearation hardly touch it, in fact many find the taste too fatty. Crickets are coming.......stick them in your nutri bullet with some veges...dinners done.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3043020/this-startup-is-building-a-model-for…

by Sheepish | 13th Jan 16, 11:20am 1452637245

Really annoys me going to bbqs and people bring sausages and chicken kebab. For a start they pay about $10 a kg for Hellers sausies, then they burn them as the bbq is too hot. Then the chicken kebab is overlooked by about 20 minutes because they scared of getting campylobacter. A bit of decent promotion for lamb wouldn't go amiss.

by scarfie | 13th Jan 16, 9:42pm 1452674550

Here is my slow roast lamb recipe to help you farm types along. It always comes out amazing, the meat falls off the bone.

Actually there are three methods that work to create a great lamb dish, I will start with my most frequently used.

Required:
Leg of lamb
Rosemary
Garlic
Salt
Mushrooms
Covered tray
Heavy frypan - pref cast iron.

Turn the oven on to 70°C, and heat up the heavy fry pan. Cut the roast in half if you don't have a big enough dish. Slice into the roast and stuff the garlic in. Brown the roast in the fry pan, olive oil or butter is okay to start it off, the fat coming off should help. Place the roast in the dish and salt the bottom side, you can put some rosemary underneath also. Pour the fat from the pan over the roast, then salt the top sides. More rosemary on top. Add in the mushrooms to the dish, a couple per person. Some red wine wouldn't hurt.

Roast covered at 70°C for 7-8 hours, longer if a big roast.

I use tin foil to cover my dish and keep the moisture in.

Alternative Method: Pre-heat the oven to maximum temperature. Slice the surface layer of the roast. to form 25mm squares, in particular the fatty surfaces. Put the garlic in as prior. Run in oil and salt. Season with rosemary, add the mushrooms and red wine. Cover and place in preheated oven. Turn oven down to 70°C after 20 mins and cook for 7=8 hours.

You can also brown the roast as in the first method, and use a pressure cooker. Does the job much quicker. Also a good way to do a few shoulder or neck chops.

by Andrewj | 13th Jan 16, 10:24pm 1452677065

When I left school I worked on a sheep station, we always seemed to start early and end late. An old lady on the place taught me to take a frozen leg of lamb out of the freezer in the morning,put it in the oven on it's lowest setting usually about 7am. When I got back and had sorted the horse out I would head home throw some potatoes on have a bath and by the time I had cleaned up there was a perfect roast in the oven. Next morning make a sandwich out of the cold joint with pickles. I've used it for years and even my wife will use it and I have taught others.
Now I am mastering the Sth American style, it's taken me a long time, I did 4 lambs for my daughters wedding, they were spectacular, like your lamb takes at least 6 hours better with 8.

by Sheepish | 14th Jan 16, 7:00am 1452708037

To the public this type of cooking is half the problem for lamb. As good as they are, it just takes too long. A leg cut up into muscle groups is far more convenient. Bit of a rub and into the bbq for 20-30 minutes, sliced and onto the plate with salad and vege. But we don't see these cuts in the supermarket, you have to ask at the butcher. Have these things pre packaged with a recipe on the back

by Belle | 14th Jan 16, 12:37pm 1452728259

Bandsaw the whole carcase into chops. 5 mins cooking. All dun. We used to regularly get a big lamb hogget or 2th done. Mmm if my gall bladder would allow it, chops every nite. Unbelievable really, a good 2th at the yards can be bought for $65 at the moment. And they say meat is expensive.

by scarfie | 14th Jan 16, 5:52pm 1452747137

A bandsaw is on the wish list, not for butchering but it would be an unexpected bonus. Haven't butchered an animal before but I reckon I could do it.

Btw the technical side of cooking lamb is the amount of time it spends at 55°C, which is where the protein fibres are broken down. Also keeping it under 100°C must help by not evaporating any moisture (IMO).

Simple pleasures eh?

by childofthesun | 14th Jan 16, 8:34am 1452713652

Thanks Scarfie. Will give it a go. Ideal for those who are out all day. Just some prep in the morning :)