Hundreds of sheep are missing after rustlers targeted a South Island station last month.

Thought to be the worst stock theft in years, around 200 in-lamb merino ewes, worth around $50,000, have been stolen from the Ribbonwood Station near Omarama.

More than 500 sheep having been stolen in the past 2 months in the South Island alone and farmers are getting desperate.

Meat prices are rising and tough times are continuing. It seems rustling is on the rise.

Raglan farmer Caroline Swann, who spoke to country99 last week about her farm being a target for rustlers for years, said that as meat prices continued to rise, so did the thefts.

"People just have no respect for other people’s property. It’s just greedy people taking pregnant ewes and taking that many they must have a farm somewhere so someone’s being greedy.

"If they want to get money from them from the meat works they could send them through but I mean they shouldn’t be putting pregnant ewes through the meat works.”

Federated Farmers Meat and Fibre Chairperson Jeanette Maxwell agrees with Ms Swann.

Ms Maxwell says the rise in thefts goes in patterns, often close to Christmas.

Over the past 3 years from Raglan to Marlborough sheep rustling has sky rocketed.

Ms Maxwell says the fact that the industry is going through tough times at the moment puts farmers at risk.

The price of meat ever increasing and the closures of many freezing works and processing factories, means people are struggling.

“With sheep prices going up, and particularly with Ribbonwood Stations case being merino sheep, and the fact that they were in lamb, you’ve got the value of the wool, the value of the ewe and also the value of the lamb that hasn’t been born yet and with sheep prices increasing significantly in the last year it suddenly makes it a lot more lucrative game.”

With the dramatic decline in sheep numbers in recent years, sheep are a precious commodity. Worth at least $100 each, thieves will sell on the black market.

Ms Maxwell believes in the case of Ribbonwood Station, that the rustlers had a particular purpose for the stolen in-lamb ewes.

“The fact that these were in lamb ewes I would think that it was much more likely that these are being stolen for purpose because to slaughter them now the ewe won’t be in terms of meat, would not be in her best condition by a long chalk; and the lambs wouldn’t be viable so they’re not worth eating either.

“So it would be really odd to have wanted to steal these animals for eating so they are either selling them on the black market or someone’s quietly bought a little block and developing their own flock.”

Ms Maxwell says that thefts of these ewe numbers would have to be a sophisticated operation.

She says the  thieves would be working in groups and most probably armed, and warns farmers not to take the law into their own hands.

Federated Farmers is currently working with the police in order to boost security for rural areas and the organisation is asking farmers to be extra vigilant, to keep an eye out for unknown stock agents offering capital stock, to work with their neighbours, record license plate numbers, take photographs of vehicles or people acting suspiciously and, above all, report stock theft to the police.