Why?
OPINION: A mate of yours truly wants to know why the beef schedule differential is now more than 45-50 cents a kilo between North and South Island producers – if you look at February 2024 steer prices.
Sheep and cow numbers fell but beef cattle numbers rose last year.
Provisional figures from the 2018 agricultural production census showed dairy cattle numbers fell 1%, to 6.4 million in June 2018.
“This followed a similar small dip in 2017, though overall dairy cattle numbers have been relatively steady since 2012,” Stats NZ agricultural production statistics manager Stuart Pitts said.
Total dairy cattle were at their highest level in 2014 at 6.7 million.
Total sheep numbers eased again in 2018, down 1% to 27.3 million.
“Sheep numbers have fallen in 10 of the past 12 years, in total down about 12.8 million from about 40.1 million in 2006,” Pitts said.
New Zealand now has 5.6 sheep for every person, after peaking at 22 sheep for every person in 1982.
A large fall in sheep and beef cattle numbers since 1990 means overall stock units have fallen in the past 28 years, despite a rise in dairy cattle numbers.
A ‘stock unit’ means different types of animals can be compared, based on the food they eat and how much they weigh.
The stock unit is based on the annual feed needed for a 55kg ewe rearing a single lamb. A dairy cow is the equivalent of about seven ewes, so is counted as seven stock units, compared with just one stock unit for a ewe.
In 1990 there were 100 million stock units in total, more than half of those sheep, with most of the rest in beef and dairy cattle. Deer make up a small part of the total.
By 2004, total stock unit numbers fell to 94 million and in 2018 that was down to 86 million.
“The large drop in stock units since 1990 mainly reflects a halving in sheep numbers, down from 53 million stock units to 25 million,” Pitts said.
“In the same period, dairy stock units almost doubled to 41 million. By 2018 dairy cattle made up almost half of all livestock units.”
The opportunity to spend more time on farm while providing a dedicated service for shareholders attracted new environmental manager Ben Howden to work for Waimakariri Irrigation Limited (WIL).
Federated Farmers claims that the Otago Regional Council is charging ahead unnecessarily with piling more regulation on rural communities.
Dairy sheep and goat farmers are being told to reduce milk supply as processors face a slump in global demand for their products.
OPINION: We have good friends from way back who had lived in one of our major cities for many years.
Listed Canterbury milk processor Synlait’s shares have been placed in a trading halt.
OPINION: Even before the National-led coalition came into power, India was very much at the fore of its trade agenda.
OPINION: A mate of yours truly wants to know why the beef schedule differential is now more than 45-50 cents…
OPINION: Your canine crusader understands that MPI were recently in front of the Parliamentary Primary Sector Select Committee for an…