News

Less positive economic factors offset good weather conditions Mild South Island weather coupled with plenty of rain has provided good soil moisture levels, setting farmers up for a promising spring. During July and August, the quietest time of the year in the saleyards, small yardings of both sheep...

Softening lamb market and dairy payout influencing market sentiment During the calving and lambing seasons trade in livestock generally enters a hiatus period. Factors facing farmers and the sector as a whole include a softening lamb market, largely due to China’s market forces, with a similar story...

Co-operation stands to benefit both sectors Several largely unrelated factors could work well together to meet the different needs of two separate farming sectors as the service bull season approaches. Land use change from farming to forestry has reduced the national beef herd in recent years...

Quality is still in demand, though sale catalogues trimmed We are now well into this year’s bull sale season as 130 studs nationwide put their best two-year-old bulls forward at auction, private sales and paddock selections. Based on the number of sheep and beef farms going to forestry recently...

Feed rich conditions support solid values Good quality, well-bred sheep and cattle are selling at solid values across all North Island regions where, despite some colder snaps and higher than average rainfall through some regions, feed rich conditions predominate. Indicators for sheep and beef...

Favourable conditions lift demand for cattle and sheep An exceptional autumn across the South Island has the country looking superb and farmers seeking to make the most of generous feed reserves. Such favourable conditions have resulted in a big lift in demand for cattle and sheep, both on paddock...

Options available with potential dairy sector cashflow restriction A sizeable proportion of those in the dairy sector go through immense upheaval on Moving Day, and this year was no different with large numbers of workers, farmers and sharemilkers having to plan, shift and settle in before, on and...

Growth of online platform points way forward for buyer-seller engagement With bidr now operating weekly at 10 saleyards across the country, and becoming more of a focal point in livestock sales, buyers and sellers are finding more sophisticated ways to take advantage of the online livestock sales...

PGG Wrightson livestock tool eases cashflow and opens fast track to farm ownership Connor and Sephrah Edwards farm in Wellsford north of Auckland. They plan to achieve farm ownership within the next five years. PGG Wrightson’s GO-STOCK is an essential part of how they are going to do it. As Connor...

A farmer and well-being professional advises how to manage winter farming stress For those of us in dairy, calving starts soon, while for many of our friends and colleagues, lambing is not too far away. Today in farming well-being matters more than ever, and with the stress that the calving and...

Committed to giving an honest opinion Manawatu local Andrew Leggett has been a PGG Wrightson Livestock representative based in Feilding since March 2018. Along with his family he has shifted to Northland, and later this month will resume his role with the company, now operating out of Whangarei...

Planning ahead for success in farming Tom Dobson is a PGG Wrightson trainee livestock representative based in Canterbury. Growing up in Christchurch, Tom’s links to farming are through his father’s rural sector focused service business. “Spending most of my school holidays working on farms, and with...

Prospects lifting for velvet and venison Early season support from the South Korean health food sector, which accounts for 30 to 35 per cent of annual sales for New Zealand production, meant the 2022/23 velvet season started strongly. However, once those big contracts were filled demand fell away...

Eric Heta left school for the freezing works. A country boy, he also milked cows for a year, and enjoyed it. For Eric though, his entry into farming came with the words ‘I do.’ “Marrying a farmer’s daughter prompted my start in farming. I left the freezing works and we went 50-50 sharemilking. Up...

A farmer and wellbeing professional outlines practical tips and tricks to manage stress on the farm Even at the best of times farming can be a stressful business. Right now, for many of us, this is not the best of times: escalating interest rates, uncertain returns, and cataclysmic weather around...

bidr sale raises $117,180 to help Cyclone Gabrielle victims Deer farmers across New Zealand banded together in mid-March to support their deer industry whānau whose lives were turned upside down by Cyclone Gabrielle. Via an online charity auction on auction site bidr they raised $117,180, a clear...

Early enquiry recommended for anyone wanting dairy livestock next season As dairy farmers plan for the start of next season enquiry for forward settlements of herds and in-calf heifers is firm. Empty rates appear to be two to three per cent higher this season than normal, probably due to the...

Buyers and sellers benefit from flexible cashflow solution A mid-March South Canterbury on farm lamb sale illustrated the effectiveness of Go-Stock, PGG Wrightson’s flexible solution for on-farm cashflow. Hamish Orbell owns and farms 4100 hectare Clayton Station, a Fairlie Basin property farming...