Preparing for a tough winter
May traditionally marks the opening of duck shooting season and the time when livestock is transitioned onto winter feed crops.
Winter feed resources are exceptionally tight this year and regional modelling is showing that farmers in many parts of the country are going into winter with significantly less feed than what would be considered normal.
This means that even with perfect autumn weather and exceptional pasture growth rates, we are still heading into the colder months behind the eight-ball.
Farmers are going to have to be pro-active with their feed planning to get through the next 20 weeks.
A recent Beef + Lamb New Zealand and Dairy NZ Smart Wintering webinar had over 300 on-line attendees which highlighted just how seriously farmers are taking their responsibilities to look after both their natural resources and livestock over winter.
While there are a number of factors influencing all of our lives that we cannot control, we can control our day-to-day management decisions.
To help support farmers make these decisions, B+LNZ has launched three feed planning and management resources. These include a feed budgeting and advice service, farmer case studies and a supplementary feed table which helps farmers see the range of supplementary feeds available, their energy value and relative costs. Information about all of these can be found on the B +LNZ website.
I strongly encourage farmers to make use of all of these tools and resources. It is going to a tough winter but forward planning can make the world of difference in getting through winter and coming out the other side with minimal residual effects.
It is pleasing to see processing capacity return to near-normal levels and this will take the pressure off many people.
On behalf of farmers, I want to sincerely thank the processors and their staff for continuing to work through the lockdown.
Retaining stock flows has enabled NZ to continue exporting meat and supply our markets, particularly those in China that are now emerging COVID-19 crisis.
We are fortunate to have a nimble industry that has been able to divert product into different markets and onto different selling platforms.
This agility, along with a low NZ dollar, has helped cushion some of the effects of the complete closure of many of our traditional from the market channels such as the food service sector.
Market commentators suggest we will see an easing in prices for our red meat, although it won’t be a ‘‘fall off the cliff’’ as other sectors of our economy are experiencing.
Credit for this must go to our processors, marketers and our farmers for having developed a strong yet agile red meat value chain.
As we, as a country, go through this incredibly difficult time, we all need to support each other. I commend the Meat the Need charity and urge those who can, to please consider donating either livestock or funds. We need to feed our people and this is a great to be able to do it.