Editorial - Yet another dry spell

 South and mid Canterbury are certainly struggling not only because of the lack of rain, but the availability of water from local irrigation schemes – notably the Opuha. Just about every night on television we see pictures of farmers struggling to feed their stock and using feed that might normally be kept for use in winter when it’s cold and the grass is also not growing.

While the pictures are very dramatic in some cases, and the plight of individuals is terrible, the overall picture this year is not as bad as it’s been in the past. That’s not to say it won’t be, but it’s important to see the summer season for what it is – dry and hot.

Soils are drying out fast around the country, but above the ground it’s a different story, with grass and feed supplies looking good in many parts.

The smart farmers have kept what grass they have for the best animals – be they cows or capital breeding stock and have got rid of the cull cows. The latter is not a bad idea considering the beef prices.

The feed situation isn’t looking too bad either, apart from Southland; in most regions farmers have already made and stored a lot of supplementary feed like hay, grass silage and baleage. 

There’s no shortage of feed around on-farm or in storage, in most parts of the country. According to DairyNZ, in Taranaki there’s probably a surplus of supplementary feed. On the other hand Southland farmers have struggled to grow and harvest surplus feed due to an extended period of very wet conditions through late winter and spring.

But do farmers have the money to buy extra feed? The low payout has squeezed cashflow on farm.

One of key messages for farmers has been to set ‘key milestones’ at which point they agree to take certain actions – be it selling stock or whatever and sticking to this – not waiting for a better day which may never come. DairyNZ has been good at getting such messages out there to farmers and it would appear that most are now managing droughts much better than they used to.

Every year is different but it would seem the odds of a drought of some sort will occur somewhere. Perhaps this dry spell has in it a timely reminder that even well planned irrigation schemes are not fool-proof and caution needs to be exercised when assessing their value.

 Even in New Zealand, water can be a finite resource and an endless supply cannot be taken for granted.