Early drought fears ease in Hawke’s Bay, but caution remains

AgFirst consultant Lochie MacGillivray says there’s been up to 50mm of rain in the hills that had earlier started to go brown and says the situation is not as dire as it was about a month ago.

He says farmers have continued to sell store lambs, but in the last week or so the market had a glitch.

“We were hoping that with a bit of rain there might have been some optimism, but the price at the Fielding sale slipped and farmers are now going to hold off selling any more store lambs,” he says.

MacGillivray says those farmers who sold store stock early probably did the right thing. He says the rain that has fallen has kicked crops along and farmers appear to be optimistic and can see a way forward. But he says temperatures have been high and the rain gained may be quickly lost through transpiration.

“So, we need to have the rain coming and if it doesn’t, we slip back to where we were quite quickly,” he says.

Meanwhile, the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council says summer came early with scorching temperatures in November and below average rainfall, plus temperatures reaching a staggering 3.4 degrees above average.

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They say the hot dry conditions have meant that with few exceptions, river flows, groundwater levels and soil moisture were all below average.