Farm consultants say lambs are not putting on weight as expected because of the diminishing grass quality despite farmers holding back stock and trying to do so.
Invercargill consultant Deane Carson of Agribusiness Consultants says normally by this time of the year his clients have killed 20% of their lambs but have so far only 12%, albeit at almost 0.5kg heavier, have been killed.
“We’re way behind,” he said.
A wet but productive spring was followed by a dry pinch around Christmas but then growth slowed and quality declined, prompting farmers to start topping paddocks to encourage quality.
Dairy consultant Gordon Platfoot said the dry conditions around Christmas forced significant numbers of farmers to feed silage to bridge the feed gap but recent rain has enabled a recovery.
The net result has been a seasonally-acceptable 10% drop in average milk flows from mid-December to mid-January.
Farmers have made vast volumes of supplements but the extreme weather means winter crops will be about average.
Carson says the question now is when will the lamb kill catch up and will meat companies be able to handle the influx given staffing issues?
If the catch-up kill is prolonged or starts too late ewes will start eating feed reserved for flushing or for winter.
AbacusBio consultant Simon Glennie has reports of farmers paying higher than works’ prices for store stock to try to use surplus feed but they are still losing the quality battle.
Regular and widespread rain means even traditionally summer-dry areas such as Central Otago are green with fresh grass, reducing sources of store stock.
Glennie said the challenge is to try to retain pasture quality and he suggests splitting flocks based on condition scores and using the surplus feed to put condition on light ewes and using the heavier ewes to maintain pasture quality.
“We need to get control now so when we reach autumn there will be some quality feed.”
Parasites have not been a widespread problem yet but could be when grass length gets shorter but Glennie says porina grass grub survival is likely to be high and could cause problems.
