Luckily, Bidr, an online platform for real-time livestock auctions, saved the day at some of the sales.
“At Balclutha and Palmerston, we’ve got the online platform through Bidr and we had a lot of bidding coming from further north,” Duffy said.
“So that really worked well.”
He said there were good quality straight beef yearling cattle on offer at the sales.
“If they were good weights and well-bred, they certainly sold very well.”
Things were still tight financially on-farm but Duffy hoped the recent drop in the OCR would ease cashflow issues.
He said that while last year was bad for cash flow, this year might be even worse.
“In Otago, of course, a lot of our clients don’t really sell a lot of lambs, or cattle for that matter, until the New Year.”
He said most of their cash flow came in from January to May.
“These months leading up to then are very difficult, when they’re sowing all their crops and everything.”
Duffy said PGG Wrightson’s Go-Stock had helped farmers out.
“At these recent cattle sales, there’s a lot of buying clients using our [Go-Stock] product to fund those good beef cattle, which has helped them to be able to purchase the quality cattle they want to buy.”
Duffy is based in Alexandra.
He said it had been a “hell of a long winter” and he’d woken up to frost that morning.
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“I’ve been here 22 years and it seemed like the longest winter for that reason alone, not seeing the sun and struggling to get above zero.”
He had a special method for monitoring the season.
“I always judge the winter by the amount of times I fill the diesel tank and the home heating and it was three times instead of two - so that tells the story there.”
He said his weather woes were nothing compared with what Southland farmers were dealing with.
“I was down south last weekend and yeah, it’s pretty atrocious down there.”
Miserable weather, plus the hard slog of calving or lambing, can take its toll on-farm.
While it was difficult to get away during this time, Duffy had some advice for those in the thick of it.
“I think the big thing there is perhaps just to have something to look forward to when lambing and calving are over.
“Booking a weekend away hunting or fishing or playing a round of golf somewhere - or something in the future even - is a big thing.”
Duffy wanted to give a shout out to the Rural Support Trust.
He said volunteers in Otago had been working hard to aid farmers get through a “very difficult” 12 months.
“I’ve seen a lot of people struggling and those people that work for the Trust have done tremendous work in helping people.”
