Rain wreaks havoc on the Coast

He told Dairy News that most of the Coast from Karamea in the north to Fox Glacier in the south have had a whole season of dull wet days. O’Regan says only some of the inland areas have escaped the big wet. Coupled with the rain and cloud, the temperatures have been cooler, affecting pasture growth.

“The wet weather has affected pasture quantity and quality and a lot of farmers are having to buy in feed or put their cows on once-a-day milking. It’s probably one of our worst seasons for the length of the time it has gone on. It’s now getting close to autumn and quite honestly much of the Coast has not seen any summer,” he says.

O’Regan says because of the lack of sunlight, the value of the grass being grown is poor and its metabolisable energy is low. This is affecting production which on average is down by 5-6%. But on some farms badly affected by the wet summer, production will be much lower, he says.

“Some farmers are seriously affected, coming out of two years of the low or just breakeven payout and although the payout has lifted a bit they are unable to produce the milk solids they would normally produce.

So it is very tough for some farmers.”

O’Regan says while some farmers on the West Coast will feed supplements such as PKE in summer, this wet summer is forcing them to do this just to keep their herds milking. They are also buying in baleage and things don’t look good going into winter.

“Some farmers have struggled to get quality and quantity feed grown onfarm, but again it’s a long time until we get to winter and the Coast can correct itself quickly.”