The build-up of prime cattle waiting to be killed in the North Island is much less and AgriHQ analysts say the worst of the earlier backlog at meat works appears to be over.
Meat Industry Association chief executive Sirma Karapeeva says meat companies have been working overtime and operating extra shifts to clear the cull cow backlog and she expects processing capacity to match demand by mid to late June.
“The lamb kill across the country and cull cow processing in the North Island are now broadly in line with volumes at the same time last year,” she says.
“Cull cow processing in the South Island is around a week and a half behind last year’s volumes as a result of the covid-19 operating protocols, however, there will be some regional variations.”
AgriHQ analyst Nicola Dennis says there are still plenty of cull cows to be slaughtered in Otago and Southland but processors can process them more quickly than prime cattle.
That, in turn, is creating delays for southern farmers wanting prime cattle killed.
Nationally, a combination of drought, the Chinese covid-19 shutdown in February-March then the impact of staff distancing in meat plants has made this season especially difficult and affected the flow of stock.
Karapeeva acknowledges the season has been difficult.
“The meat processing sector has been operating under a set of strict rules to ensure our continuing operations do not contribute to the spread of covid-19. This includes a requirement for physical distancing between employees.
“The protocol resulted in a reduction in processing capacity across the sector and unavoidable waiting times for farmers.”
Most processing plants were operating at normal capacity ahead of entering their seasonal shutdown, having shed seasonal shift workers, Karapeeva said.
And the lamb season came to a sudden halt about two weeks ago after a significant increase in volume in May as covid-19 staff protocols eased, Dennis said.
That was also driven by uncertain lamb schedules and a flat store market that encouraged farmers to offload killable stock when prices stabilised and when space opened up in May.
Those animals would normally be carried over to heavier weights but instead contributed to that month’s peak.
Since then the store market has improved and some lighter killable lambs have been diverted to that market.
Meat companies are looking to kill cull ewes as lambs have taken priority in recent months.
Many farmers are still overstocked after the disrupted killing and store stock season.
Few districts have surplus grass or spare supplementary feed.
