11 Sep 2015

Profit lift predicted for sheep, beef farmers

3:18 pm on 11 September 2015

Beef and Lamb New Zealand's economic service is predicting the average sheep and beef farm will see an almost 10 percent lift in pre-tax profit this season, to about $110,000.

Its new season outlook for 2015/16 said that profit was still just over 3 percent below the five-year average.

The group's chief economist, Andrew Burtt, said a main driver for the increased profit was the lower New Zealand dollar.

"Also there's very strong beef prices and that's led to good returns for those farmers in parts of the country that rely heavily on beef meat production vs sheep production.

"The further north you are in New Zealand, the higher proportion of cattle farmers [those areas] generally have, so they are benefiting from the strong international demand in beef, whereas if you are further south and are stronger in sheep and lamb production, things are a lot more subdued."