Supplement shortage warning

The Northland Rural Support Trust is working on having the Western part of Northland with much of the Waikato looking to head the same direction in a little under a month.

Northland DairyNZ held a drought shout at the Northern Wairoa hotel in Dargaville with an estimated 70 people turning up.

Many Northland farmers have dried off already with the likelihood of the last spring calving dairy farmers in the region drying off in next few days according to Kaipara Dairy NZ representative Kylie Harnett in order to have cows ready to calve in June/July window.

Harnett predicts that grass and maize silage at incredibly low levels due to the dry season, putting heavy pressures on farmers going into the autumn period where they receive no income but still need to find food for cows.

The availability and price of both grains and grass hay silage had been squeezed according to Harnett and would only be squeezed more in the next few weeks.
Global supply problems had already squeezed both PKE availability and price and Harnett says farmers were already looking at an estimated $443/tonne for PKE on the spot market in the region with vary limited availability.

Representatives say the stock of available grazing and grass and hay is also running low.

While farmers in the east of Northand, in the Bay of Plenty and South of Taupo had had a fantastic summer and had been able to make large volumes of extra supplement the price and availability was being squeezed the closer farmers in drier areas came to the time they would need to dry off cows.

Harnett says that hay and silage grown in Northland was fetching around $80 a bale with high demand from Waikato farmers reducing availability for Northland farmers.

Northland Rural Support Trust coordinator Julie Jonker says while the Waikato has had a much kinder spring and winter than Northland a bale of silage was still going for $100 a bale with the purchaser having to pay transport costs.

Harnett says farmers need to start planning feed arrangements for the dry off period, if they haven't already, to avoid being left without access to supplement at any price. "The window is closing fast."

She says this is especially important when clearance is needed from banks to bring in extra feed. "If you go to banks now with a plan, nine times out of ten they'll work with you."