Outlook gloomy as last sale held
Little in way of good news at Monday’s sale
Monday’s prime sale at Stortford Lodge was the last for the foreseeable future. All stock sales nationwide have been stopped as part of the level four efforts to beat Covid-19.
For Stortford Lodge, this means the in-calf cow and heifer fair yesterday was cancelled. At least 1000 pregnant animals will now have to be kept on farm or sold privately.
It also means two weaner cattle fairs scheduled for next month are also off.
More than 1000 weaners were expected to go through the yards at each of those sales.
Hawke’s Bay’s long drought is refusing to break, so finding feed and water for all those extra mouths is certain to be a problem for farmers.
They will likely have to buy in supplements to keep their animals fed.
The loss of income will be felt as they have to spend extra on feed.
Meat plants are expected to keep working during the shutdown and farmers who are able could take their stock straight in.
However, because of the drought, processing space is at a premium, shutting off another avenue.
At Monday’s sale there was little in the way of good news either.
A good quality offering of 64 cattle, about 500 ewes and 300 lambs was hard to sell in the absence of buyers and several pens of good lambs were passed in.
The cattle sale was mostly good empty cows and prices eased all round for them as well, although they all found a buyer.
Hawke’s Bay’s long drought is refusing to break . . .
Regenerative agriculture aims to capture carbon in soil and in above-ground biomass, reversing global trends of emitting carbon into the atmosphere.
PRICES
Cattle:
Cows: (Ang, fries, fries-cross) Av weight, 462kg to 607kg, 135c/kg to 160.5c/kg, $536/head to $922/head.
Heifers: (Here-cross, here-fries, jersey-cross, fries) Av weight, 466kg to 575kg, 212c/kg to 222.5c/kg, $1010/head to $1265/head.
Oxen: (Ang) weight, 504kg, 240c/kg, $1209/head.
Sheep:
Ewes: Slipe, good,$122 to $135.50; med, $111, $120; lighter, $70.50 to $91.80. Shorn, good, $117, med, $92.50.
Lambs: Male, $95 to $174; ewe, $115 to $159; b/f, $120.50, $136; M/s, $107 to $16.50; b/f, $126. ■