Sheep farmers' spirits higher going into spring

Farmers are cautiously optimistic this season due to mild weather and slightly better lamb prices...
Farmers are cautiously optimistic this season due to mild weather and slightly better lamb prices. Photo from Allied Press files.
North Canterbury's mild weather has sheep farmers feeling more confident then usual.

Beef and Lamb New Zealand northern South Island director Andy Fox, of Scargill Valley in North Canterbury, said there was an air of confidence as spring lambing got into full swing, due to a combination of mild weather and slightly better lamb prices, which he said were predicted to be $3-$5 up on last year.

''I think the spring always helps. In the middle of a wet winter or a drought, it's always hard to be positive. But it's much easier in the spring and tailing is always a pretty positive time.''

He said the recent ''beautiful weather'' had set farmers up well for lambing, ''but we could do with a bit more rain now, because it's starting to get a little bit dry''.

Mr Fox said both his A and B flocks were in the middle of lambing, which he expected to be completed by the end of the month. The B flock began lambing first and has had a good result.

''We leave the ram out for a total of 40 days. We did some foetal ageing during scanning and found that 80%-85% of ewes conceived within 20 days, so most of them have lambed.''

The one negative was the presence of bearings in what otherwise appeared to be healthy twinning ewes, Mr Fox said.

''It's one of those things. There's 15,000 commercial sheep farmers and there's probably 15,000 theories on what causes bearings and probably just as many ideas for how to treat it, but no-one seems to know much about it.''

Further south, Tom Burrows said lambing was well under way ''in brilliant weather'' on his Horrellville property, near Oxford, with his black-faced ewes having finished and his Corriedales and Perendales just getting started last week.

The black-faced ewes scanned at 160% and, with a low mortality rate, ''they are coming through the yards at 145%-150%''. The Perendales and Corriedales scanned at 190% but had not got off to the best of starts with lambing. ''We're not going so well with the Perendales. We've got 15 ewes which have aborted out of about 120. We've taken some samples in to the vet, but we can't put a finger on it.''

Federated Farmers North Canterbury meat and fibre spokesman Dan Hodgen, of Waipara, was also cautiously optimistic about the coming season, as he had a good crop of lambs. ''The weather is very favourable at the moment and most of them [farmers] are well through the lambing. The lambs like a bit of sun on their backs. They didn't get as much earlier on last year, so they are piling on the weight.''

His ewes scanned ''at a conservative mid-150s'' percent, on a par with last year, which suited his dryland farm, as it allowed him to get the lambs away earlier ''before it gets too dry''. However, Mr Hodgen said farmers were keeping a wary eye on the weather, as North Canterbury was ''only ever two weeks away from dry''.

- by David Hill 

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