McIvor moving to OSPRI
Beef + Lamb New Zealand chief executive for the past eight years, Sam McIvor is heading for new pastures at Ospri, which runs NZ’s integrated animal disease management and traceability service.
NZ sheep and beef farmers achieved a lower lambing percentage in 2019 than in 2018, according to the latest Lamb Crop 2019 report.
B+LNZ’s Economic Service estimates the number of lambs tailed in spring 2019 decreased by 2.4% or 552,000 head on the previous spring to 22.7 million head.
However, 2018’s lamb crop was a record. Most of the decline occurred in the South Island. The lower number of lambs is also expected to reduce the volumes processed for export in the first quarter of the 2019-20 season – from October to December.
Last year’s lambing percentage was 127.1% -- 1.5% lower than in spring 2018. This means 127 lambs were born per hundred ewes, compared with an average of 123 over the prior 10 years.
Andrew Burtt, chief economist of B+LNZ’s Economic Service, says the record high lambing percentage achieved in 2018 was always going to be difficult to match – with particularly favourable conditions that year.
However, he was a little surprised by some of the regional declines in 2019 and says it is a reminder of the natural systems that farmers have to work with.
“2018’s result was such a fantastic achievement that proved farmers were efficient and doing more with less.” Burtt explained.
“It was always going to be difficult to set another record. But the South Island, and Otago in particular, really struggled in 2019 due to drier conditions leading to lower feed availability,” he says.
Lambs from ewe hoggets also fell in 2019, as fewer ewe hoggets were mated last year.
Meanwhile, the number of adult sheep processed is expected to increase 9.2% from 3.4 million head in 2018-19 to 3.7 million head in 2019-20.
South Waikato farm manager Ben Purua’s amazing transformation from gang life to milking cows was rewarded with the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer award last night.
Bankers have been making record profits in the last few years, but those aren’t the only records they’ve been breaking, says Federated Farmers vice president Richard McIntyre.
The 2023-24 season has been a roller coaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers, according to Federated Farmers dairy section chair, Mathew Zonderop.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.
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