Callum Stewart is National Genetics Manager for PGG Wrightson and Jamie Mackay caught up with him in Feilding on Friday - sale day - a big day for the local community.  Callum reckons sale day brings a lot of money into the township, with farmers supporting local and having a big spend-up!! 

The conversation turned to bull selling season.  Jamie mentions the really good prices going for the beef breeds like Hereford and Angus. 

Surely a reflection of the good prices farmers are being paid for red meat.  Callum agrees and emphasises farmers are producing a quality product and being well rewarded for it across all breeds, including Simmental and South Devon along with Hereford and Angus.

Jamie mentions well-known Otago beef breeder Gray Pannett at Roxburgh who got forty eight grand for his top bull.  Callum says it's great to see results like this.  A reflection of the effort put into data and the type of cattle along with great support.

Jamie comes back to the long tail of the processing backlog for the season.  Are we nearer to getting it tidied up?  Seems not - but the saviour for farmers is the abundance of grass which has been able to carry the cattle through.  It's challenging - but prices are holding up.  Hopefully we can get the product overseas or distributed locally as soon as possible.  Especially in light of red meat being second to dairy as our most important export earner with receipts up by 'round 18 percent year on year.  Callum reckons the industry is in good shape to give that number even more of a nudge.  He emphasises they're more than farmers, they're food producers, committed to quality and integrity.