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the country

Sheep & Beef

Shane Gerken - South Island Livestock Manager

Buyers are being very selective with the quality of cattle they purchase, which is typical at this time of the year.

Better quality types of both traditional/beef and dairy-beef are available and these are seeing strong competition at both the saleyards and in the paddock.

Store lambs supply has begun to dry up, particularly in the South Island, with the sale yards remaining the preferred channel to buy and sell lambs.

The average lamb price has remained steady at $7.90/kg. There is a wide range of prices depending on where lambs are sent. Lambs fetched up to $8.10/kg at the top end. Mutton pricing is varied with  the most common range sitting between $5.20-$5.50/kg.

 

Dairy

Jamie Cunningham - National Dairy Sales Manager

With calving well underway across the country our clients are very much head down at present. Feeder calf sales around the North Island are performing well with interest from calf rearers on the quality calves.

We are well underway with our Defer-a-bull campaign and discussing service bull requirements and options with our clients. Defer-a-bull has been a great tool for clients to purchase their bull teams without having to fund them up front and putting pressure on cashflow early in the season.  The success of this product is proven with its return customers, with some clients having used the product for 10 years.

We still have strong enquiry for Rising 1 year Friesian heifers with the export market into China proving to be very keen and competitive on dairy heifers.

Let’s hope that all parts of the country get an early Spring and the 2019/2020 season gets as much of that valuable pre-Christmas production out the gate as possible.

 

Genetics

Ryan Shannan - Livestock Genetics Rep

We’ve had great success at a majority of the 2yr old sales in May and June and we look forward to preparing for the upcoming yearling sales in Spring.  

It’s now time to contact your Genetics or Livestock rep regarding bull purchases for your dairy herd. Our specialist team can offer sound advice when purchasing bulls to suit your requirements, whether your focus is on calving ease, high growth or short gestation. Using beef genetics is a powerful tool when marketing your calves, along with the extra dollars that contribute to your bottom line.

We have many options for purchasing reputable bulls, whether it’s through auction sales, private treaty or through the Bidr online Trading Platform.  Whichever way you choose to buy, we can offer EBVs to help with your selection and different price ranges to suit your requirements.

For further assistance feel free to contact your local rep who can help you with breeding better business.

It’s that time of the year! Pipfruit growers need to start thinking about pheromone trapping and registering your blocks with Apple and Pear NZ, for Codling Moth sensitive markets during August. 

Pipfruit growers should firstly identify any production sites which may have fallen into the high-risk category. It is important to identify those sites now so pheromone dispensers can be pre-ordered through your Fruitfed Supplies representative or store.

All registered high-risk production sites under the Official Assurance Programme (OAP) for codling moth (Cydia pomonella) must be monitored by an accredited Pest Surveyor, so it’s important that pipfruit growers contact our crop monitoring team to register their production site for the season. The trap surveyor will put a plan in place to position traps on the orchard maps within the high-risk production site, input trap information into Fruitfed Supplies Tracit database and send all trap information to Apple and Pear NZ before 1 September. 

The Crop Monitoring Service (CMS) has seen a big jump in growers registering for the Pheromone Trapping Service. CMS can take the pain and pressure away from the growers and take care of trap placement; weekly trap reading; compliance around audits and data capture. Once growers are on board with the service, they realise the benefits quickly. 

Fruitfed CMS has developed a seamless reporting system, utilising a scout field app to capture data in the field and a database (Tracit) which correlates the data. This is then fully automated to disseminate reports to the growers within minutes of the information having been captured in the field. All trap data is then sent to Apple and Pear NZ database without the growers having to re-enter data twice.

If you would like to sign up or have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact your Crop Monitoring Coordinator or your Fruitfed Supplies Technical Horticultural Representative. Quote packages can be put together for clients. 

Mark Leishman caught up with Peter Moore, GM of PGW Livestock on Country TV’s Roundup on Friday, 9th August.
Listen to the full interview and find out about the current market conditions, the changes in the landscape for bobby calves, and what’s happening with stock being sold on bidr.

Market update
The sheep and beef market is very strong with sheep farmers getting really good returns for their lambs.  The strength in the market is being driven by overseas demand.
In contrast to sheep and beef, confidence in the dairy industry is low as it remains in a state of flux and with the GDT remaining fairly much unchanged.

Bobby Calves
There are more animals coming from the Dairy Industry into the beef industry as dairy farmers are recognising the value in beef cross calves that can be reared on to 100 kg.  Alongside supporting improved animal welfare, it’s a great opportunity for farmers to make a little bit more out of their calves.

bidr update
bidr is gaining good momentum through their regular weekly livestock sales which started in early July.  A large number of users have signed up as registered buyers/sellers and a good number of sales have seen total clearances.

How are you tracking? Is NAIT compliance weighing heavy on your mind and tracking the right animals consumes valuable daylight? You can take out the guess work and human error with a Tru-test EID Stick Reader.

Do you want to keep things streamlined and simple or do you want to dive into the data? Tru-test has a range of reliable EID Readers and weighing technology that suit every size and type of farm. 
The SRS2 Stick reader quickly and easily reads, records and transfers EID tag information. Keep track of individual animals with the easy-to-use, ergonomically designed SRS2 EID Stick Reader. Suitable for cattle, sheep and deer. The SRS2 features a large, highly readable screen to display the session count, EIDs and pre-loaded visual ID numbers. Its long 650mm reach length enable you to keep a safe distance when scanning those lively animals and the rugged, waterproof design has been tested in the tough agricultural environment. 

With 19 hours of battery the SRS2 can outlast most farmers. Its Bluetooth wireless technology connects with your weigh scale and means you can easily send session information to NAIT via the Data Link smartphone app - without you having to sort or download the data on your computer! This allows for easy animal transfers and tracking, helping you to get well on the road to being NAIT compliant. It has memory space for up to 250,000 scanned tags and has fast tag reads with feedback through a vibrating handle. Its smart scan will alert you if you try to double scan an animal and you can easily delete animal data right on the stick reader. Test your speed against the SRS2 as it can read up to 1,100 tags every minute. 

The SRS2 is a simple design with ease-of-use being front of mind. For more data driven farmers the XRS2 provides more in depth functions but both stick readers are compatible with NAIT tags and Bluetooth across to your phone and Tru-test weigh scales. Data Link is available on both Android/Apple phones. Tru-test’s service doesn’t stop at the store – you’re local territory manager will help you set it up and teach you how to get the most out of your EID reader. 

For more information on the SRS2 Stick Reader, contact your local PGG Wrightson team.