Last month's storm seems not only to have killed more than a million lambs, but also taken with it the hope for more orderly behaviour by farmers and the meat industry.
With estimates of the number of lambs killed by the storm creeping up towards one million, commentators say the resulting shortage of stock has created the perfect environment for farmers to play the spot market and meat companies to engage in a procurement war - everything the ailing sheep meat industry does not need.
Farmers are believed to be already avoiding locking themselves in to contracted prices for the purchase of store lambs or the supply of prime lambs, believing the spot market will deliver higher returns, understandable behaviour given some face a 30% drop in income.
At a time when the industry is crying out for rationalisation and farmers to commit supply to one processor, the opposite looks like happening, with talk of farmers conducting a "Sunday night auction" to find the highest price among processors.
Most of the storm carnage happened on the doorstep of the Alliance Group but the Invercargill co-operative may have to endure a second hit if previously loyal suppliers play companies off against each other for the highest price.
Silver Fern Farms' catchment appears less affected, but it could suffer a similar fate.
Estimates on the number of lambs killed by September's storm have increased to about one million, with most of those in South Otago and Southland, but a lesser, but still significant, number dying during the same storm in the central and East Coast of the North Island.
The loss of a million lambs would result in the season's kill slipping below 20 million for the first time in many years.
