“A lot of barley this season has gone malting and barley harvested for feed is taken up with no reserves looking likely coming into the maize harvest either with a lot chopped for silage due to poor grain quality.”
Arable Solutions normally stores 3000-4000 tonnes of grain at a time.
“But we trade a whole more than that.
“We started with 4000t in storage this season. We’re down to the last 200t now.
“We’re looking at 6000t of maize coming in and the majority of that is spoken for.
“I’ve got clients lining up. I’m on the hunt for grain.”
Nitschke said it’s not just the dairy industry looking for feed.
“Taihape has taken up a lot of the hold-over maize and in a first ever we’ve supplied to some big sheep stations desperate for feed to condition ewes before lambing.
“That’s sucked up a lot of the storage. They have been doing this for a month or so now and there’s no end in sight.
“It’s trying times and at the end of the day people have got to take what they can get. It’s a supply and demand situation now.
Palm kernel at $400 a tonne, comparable to maize barley and wheat, is no longer an economic option.
“The option is South Island grain,” Nitschke said.
“The difference of $100 a tonne (delivered) is the difference of whether you can feed your stock or not.
“If it gets to $500/that’s probably okay but South Island pricing could reach a point where people just won’t or can’t pay for it.”
Federated Farmers arable grains chairman Brian Leadley said with a good average harvest recording some better than average yields this season there’s grain out there.
“There’s feed available. It’s certainly been a good harvest yield-wise.
“We want to be able to support the North Island as need may arise but as is the ongoing case, transportation comes at a cost.
“Cropping farmers have had a couple of tough seasons leading into now. We can’t afford to be Father Christmas.”
Leadley said the feeds available include wheat, barley, straw, grass and likely some balage.
“The markets need to communicate what feeds are required, the prices being offered and the market will set itself,” Leadley said.
With the arable industry in a good position to support drought-stricken areas Leadley urged farmers to act sooner rather than later.
“If you think you are going to need feed you should get it now.
“There is feed available but it’s not a massive stockpile and it will only get more expensive.”
Quigley Feeds in Ashburton is not yet experiencing unprecedented demand.
It has a loyal North Island client-base, mostly in Waikato, with several Northland clients also on the books, that it continues to supply with balage, hay and straw.
The business also exports feed to Korea, Japan and Dubai, mainly for cattle feedlots.
“We have our regular business with a good core base both here in New Zealand and overseas and we do have to look after them.
“We have feed available and we can help genuine buyers and we have the ways and means to deliver,” Quigley Feeds North Island feed sales and logistics manager Kent Hancock said.
The business has trucks on the road and has a unique shipping option from Lyttleton to Tauranga, from where on-delivery via road transport is an option.
Quigley Feeds, established in February last year, invested in a hay press to enable more efficient packing for transport.
The press compresses a seven-foot bale into half the length, effectively allowing an 11-13 tonne container to take up to 27 tonnes.
Managing director Andrew Quigley is sympathetic to the drought-stricken regions in need of feed but said the reality is a high percentage its product will end up going overseas.
“However, we will always endeavour to look after our NZ customers first.
“If we get a shit winter in NZ we will be short of feed but I can’t sit and wait when I have an export market so we need to know early if product is required locally.
“There is an absolute tonne of feed still in Canterbury, other contractors have significant volumes available too but freight is the big issue.”
Quigley said people wanting feed should order ahead of need.
“Pick up the phone a month before you need it, logistics is the biggest barrier and it could take a month to get it up there.”
