| 21 Cattle revenue growth forecast in Northland Jeff Martin with Stella. Russell Fredric RURAL PEOPLE » Te Karoa Farms Jeff Martin is upbeat about his expectations for this season’s store cattle prices on the back of a shortage of supply in Northland in September. “At the moment it’s really high for the young store market.” “[“It’s a] combination of reasons. You’ve got people understocked, a shortage of stock, a shortage of calves reared in the past and then there’s confidence in the spring. It’s a warm spring and then there’s confidence in the beef market going forward. “People are jumping in and restocking now, they were possibly a bit understocked for winter. While the price per kilogram is high now, prices will probably ease slightly meaning the average price paid for restocking finishing farms will be lower than the current price, but farmers will still get all their replacements if they start earlier.” Whether his assessment will actually prove correct is anyone’s guess, Jeff says. However, Beef and Lamb New Zealand’s 2024-25 season outlook published in September gives some merit to his view and forecasts cattle revenue in Northland to increase 8.6% The report says the annual weighted average all classes farm-gate cattle price for 2024-25 is estimated at 535 cents per kilogram of carcass weight, up 4.3% on 2023-24 and 4.8% higher than the five-year average, while a 270kg to 295kg bull is tipped to achieve 584c/kgCW. “For 2024-25, export prices remain relatively solid compared to historical averages despite a decrease in production, keeping cattle farm-gate prices at firm levels.” Jeff and his wife Helen Linssen specialise in Friesian beef bull production, managing three independent blocks in Kaeo, comprising 484 hectares of which including 307 hectares is effective, under the name Te Karoa farms. The farm system, which has been fine-tuned over 20 years, runs on buying three month old cattle weighing 100 kilograms and selling them after 12 to 15 months at about 350kg to 360kg, mostly to Waikato farmers and takes in stock in autumn and spring. Jeff sees a trend emerging where the number of Friesian and Kiwicross beef bulls will decline due to the breed increasingly being crossed with exotic beef breeds such as Charolais and Simmental. Kikuyu is the predominant pasture on Te Karoa from mid-summer until late autumn when soil temperatures are higher. It grows during winter, although more slowly, while ryegrass and clovers can also grow during winter and spring provided the kikuyu can be grazed low enough to let the other pastures flourish and has the advantage of being much less susceptible to perpetuating facial eczema spores than ryegrass. “In our operation we’ve got three layers of animals; when the autumn calves are away we’ve also got at that time the autumn and spring bulls from the year before and the new calves. By going into autumn animals as well it gives us a buffer for the young calves so we clean up the pasture worm burden with all the cattle.” Pasture growth typically kicks in from late June although this can be quite variable, but Northland’s mild climate means the kikuyu does not stop growing during winter and “in 60 days in winter we can grow a lot of feed.” With this spring off to a good start and the favourable forecast prices, Jeff has a tangible basis for his optimism. “This [spring] is better than usual. November for us, we typically see some really good growth rates 09 408 1950 33-35 Matthews Ave, Kaitaia e: sales@kaitaiamotorcycles.co.nz www.kaitaiamotorcycles.co.nz · Livestock · Logs · Water · Readymix Concrete · General Cartage 09 406 0087 | mangonuihaulage.co.nz kaitaiagroundspread@gmail.com Eric Williams: 021 406 086 in the cattle. We are speeding the rotations up so we are throwing as much feed at the cattle as we can at the moment to keep them growing because we will start selling them in November.” “It’s a pretty positive season coming for Northland.”
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