Hazlett Rural livestock manager Ed Marfell says the migration of Southland lambs to Canterbury has come early as the southern region suffers drought.
Store lambs are slow-going around South Island sale yards, with farm-to-farm trading taking off as Southland lambs move to greener pastures.
Hazlett Rural livestock manager Ed Marfell says farmers are tending to prefer the farm-to-farm trading to get the bigger numbers of lambs.
“Cropping farmers deal in volume and it suits them better to get unit loads where they know what they are getting in numbers and consistency, rather than buying several pens of mixed lambs and numbers to get 1000,” Marfell said.
He said the migration of Southland lambs to Canterbury has come early as the southern region suffers drought.
Southland and parts of Otago have been in the grip of an intense dry spell since the start of 2022.
Rainfall on the south coast has been the lowest since records began 50 years ago and some rivers are at levels only seen about every 80 years, while conditions are also very dry in the rest of Southland.
“Southland doesn’t hesitate to offload when they know they are in trouble,” he said.
“Traditionally we wouldn’t be seeing these lambs coming up until April-May, they are two to three weeks earlier and once on the truck to move, it makes sense to offload directly to a farm – and they are good lambs.
“There are not the store lambs in Canterbury for Canterbury with the region sitting pretty in grass so as crops have come off, the lambs are going on and perhaps with more intensity in a shorter timeframe because of the late harvest.”
He said pricing is a moving feast, very much based on the market depending on lamb weight.
“We are pretty much sitting around an average $3.60 here in the south, but a month ago in the North Island it was $3.20, now it’s over $4 – the rain does that,” he said.
Given the favourable season for feed in the wider Canterbury region, it’s expected trading will continue for some time yet.
“I would think there will be another good month of lamb trading yet; there are some good scale finishing properties in the greater Canterbury region to fill up yet, so it could dribble on throughout the winter,” he said.
Marfell said farmers are optimistic with the markets looking to remain good.
“There’s at least one minimum contract of $8.80 out there for June,” he said.
AgriHQ analyst Fiona Quarrie said the Southland offloading is chipping the value out of the store lamb market.
Things are beginning to change as Southland offloads stock and unit loads of lambs pour direct onto Canterbury farms, leaving a limited sale yards buying bench impacting on the market.
“Demand for lambs is there but at this stage with feed uncertainty, April-May looks like the best time to secure,” Quarrie said.
Around the sale yards store lambs are slow going with Temuka last week averaging $3.45/kg, while lesser numbers at Canterbury Park dropped 44c/kg on the previous week to an average $3.63.
Buyers typically after big numbers of stores are sourcing unit loads direct from properties and this left smaller lines of mixed breeds and types to be sold at the sale yards in front of a subdued buying bench of buyers with shorter shopping lists, Quarrie said.
Following a spike in store lamb throughput the previous week, just 450 were yarded at Coalgate on Thursday and while a pen of 30 forward store lambs fetched $142, the remainder were more medium types, with the next tier trading at $104-$115 before a big drop to the largest pen at $88.