Farming has been one of the economy's life rafts during the Covid-19 lockdown, but Federated Farmers president as Katie Milne told Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee this morning that winter was coming, and not just in terms of the weather.
The "double whammy of drought" and reduced capacity at meat processing works meant many farmers were carrying more stock than they would wish into the colder months, and feed was very tight, while grass and crop yields were down.
Winter, in another sense, was the dampener on primary produce prices that would likely stem from world economies crashed by the virus crisis. The same had happened after the Global Financial Crisis.
"Meat that was getting $5 something a kilo is now bringing in $3, if we can get it off the farm. The milk returns (per kilo of milk solids) had $7 in front of it this year, but there are predictions that next year it will be $5,," Ms Milne said.
While the sector was working as hard as it could to keep things going, farming would not come out of the crisis unscathed, the federation having particular concerns about the lockdown's impacts on businesses downstream of producers and growers that helped keep farming running every day - "The suppliers to the guy who fixes the hydraulic pump, the guy who imports the tractor tyres."
