Where $100m changes hands a year
The Feilding stock yards are the smell of money for the town. Jill Galloway has lived near Feilding for 30 years.
Farmers bid around $96 for a sheep, but there are 264 in the pen – that’s about $25,000 that changes hands. Then there are cattle in the sale rostrum. Some big bullocks sold for $1800 each – there were 44, so about $80,000 for the pen.
That was a surprise to town people doing the tour of the Feilding’s saleyards.
Lead tour group person, racconteur and a farmer for 70 years in Manawatu, Eric Linklater says about $100 million changes hands in a year, with farmers and meat plant buyers active.
‘‘Sales in March or April attract stock at the end of the season and often a week can hit $3m.’’
Does that mean farmers have a lot of money?
Some do but many others borrow money and sell stock later, after the sheep or catle have put weight on.
The biggest sale is the Friday store stock sale. Store means the stock is largely from the hill country, and needs good grass or crops to finish it to slaughter weights.
There is a smaller prime sale on Monday – buyers there are often from the meat works. Prime stock is ready for slaughter.
So if you are feeling queasy about that – just remember where your lamb chops and filet steak come from.
Linklater says the average is 12,000 sheep and about 1100 head of cattle.
But he says it is hard to estimate averages. Some sales are bigger – at the moment about 1500 cattle come through the saleyards on a Friday. There are some ewes with lambs at foot.
But the bulk of recent sales has been last season’s lambs – hoggets.
Linklater says Taupo and Hastings are the nearest weekly stock sales.
‘‘So this saleyards has a huge area of catchment. I have seen stock here from D’Uville Island and from the South Island. When there was a drought in Timaru, we saw 39,000 lambs through here in three weeks.’’
Gumboots are allowed inside at the Saleyards Cafe. All pies are made on the premises, and a favourite is pea, pie and pud.
A few stock agents and truckies go for the all-day breakfast of sausages, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, hashbrown and toast. Tea and coffee come in mugs.
And one unusual feature of the saleyards, Linklater says they are 50 metres from Feilding’s busiest footpath. Some saleyards were close to shopping areas, but most were moved to the outskirts of town. Not so in Feilding. Urban people going about their business can tell can tell when there is a stock sale. They can smell it all over town.
‘‘People in town say the saleyards is the smell of money. Everyone gets used to it.’’ Affluent effluent? Feilding is built on its rural surrounds and sees itself as a largely rural support town.
A few people work in Palerston North, but chose to live in Feilding. At 20 minutes away from a major city – Feilding woul;d be close enough to be considered inner city if the travel was in Auckland.
It is the only town or city that has a Farmer’s Market on a Friday, to catch the farmers coming to town. It is a busy day for Feilding.
Some farmers go to buy or sell stock at the sale. Many just go to talk.
The once-a-year rural day, when animals come to town, sheep, alpacas, ponies and more as well as shearers and dogs who strut their stuff.
There can be sheep racing and a gumboot relay goes through the saleyards. People at the sale part to let the racers through and over fences.
Feilding has a the Coach House museum with old farm equipment included.
It is home to seveal meat plants that process deer, cattle and sheep as well as a few ostriches.
MyFarm, a rural investment business with 47 dairy farms, seven sheep and beef farms and two orchards, is based in the town.
Feilding is home to the latest rural company, Iowa-based Proliant which has built a $24 million factory near the Manawatu town, and was expected to pump $90m into the national economy in the next decade.
After a three year hunt through Australasia, the firm which uses bovine blood plasma for pharmecueticals, made Feilding its base.
Feilding has been officially ‘‘NZ’s Most Beautiful Town’’ 14 times.
The mayor, Margaret Kouvelis loves the town and sings its rural praises. A recent economic report highlighted sheep and beef farmming as having potential.
She says housing is affordable, the lifestyle is relaxing and friendly, with no traffic lights, free parking and all the benefits of a major city are only 20 kilometres away.
It knows it’s history, and is a small town with a big heart. Occupants are proud to say they are Feildingites.