Livestock report: Assessing the damage after recent floods

File photo / Michael Craig

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Jamie Mackay from The Country had a quick chat with Brad Osborne, area livestock manager for PGG Wrightson for South Auckland.

Osborne was heading over to Waiheke Island for a lamb draft, to which Mackay expressed surprise - he didn’t realise there was any stock on the island.

Both agreed it would be an interesting exercise.

According to Osborne, there were still plenty of ewes and breeding cows on the island.

Mackay then turned to the more serious business of floods in South Auckland and asked Osborne how the recovery was going.

Osborne said it had been a slow process with many farmers and residents still assessing the damage, which was widespread with significant loss of land.

Fence lines had been blown out and there had even been a loss of life, with one of PGG Wrightson’s clients being swept away.

Overall, it was very traumatic, Osborne said.

Ascertaining the damage was ongoing with a lot of roading still blocked off.

The rainfall was 300 mm in some parts of the region over a 48-hour period and the drainage just couldn’t keep up, he said.

Mackay said one positive to come out of the rain in the top half of the North Island was that the draught was completely off the radar.

He reckoned there was more grass than people knew what to do with - and the one thing that drives store markets for cattle and sheep was grass.

Osborne agreed and said there had been some very buoyant prices through the sale yards and paddock sales.

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However, while the demand was huge, the outlook for the next couple of weeks was slow as there was not a lot of cattle out there to be sold, he said.

As a side note, Mackay inquired whether lambs and cattle still crossed the Cook Strait. He wondered, with it being pretty dry down in the South Island, would many make the journey north?

Osborne said there would be a considerable number of lambs heading north to help control the grass.

Mackay ended by asking whether dairy cow empty rates were a concern and what Osborne saw as the cause.

Osborne put it down to grass growth during mating months. There were still some final scans to be done but early indications were not good.

He said it would be worked through and they’d try to get some cows out to the people who needed them.