Drying off early

 Feed concerns are also on the minds of many farmers, given the shortage or cost of supplementary feed and the likely shortfall of winter grazing for young stock.

Wairarapa is the latest region hit by the dry: a ‘localised drought’ has been declared.

Wade Bell, DairyNZ, told Dairy News there is extreme pressure on farmers in parts of South Canterbury, especially because of irrigation restrictions. Some farmers in the Fairlie area are especially badly hit and are likely to have to dry off their herds.

“The other thing is the flow-on effect of the dry on winter grazing. Dairy farmers rely on getting stock off in winter but a lot of dryland grazing is affected as well, creating a lot of stress down there.”

Bell says Bay of Plenty and Waikato farmers have been similarly affected for a couple of summers at least, though they are pretty well placed for summer crops and supplements. Even so they are feeding out high levels of supplements – 5-12kg/cow/day, to try to protect pasture covers and cow condition. 

“They’ve had patchy rain over the last few weeks but nothing significant to break the drought. As a result, pastures covers in those regions are quite low –1600-1800. But farmers seem to be in good spirits, having feed available from spring and maize crops coming off now.”

Bell says Southland has had rain and covers are lifting. In Taranaki rain has fallen on farms near the mountain, while those in the north of the province and along the coast have tended to miss out. – Peter Burke