Wait and see – but not too long!

 That’s the message to farmers in Manawatu/Rangitikei region from the local Fed Farmers’ Meat and Fibre chair Richard Morrison. He says the dry weather has come earlier than normal to his region and that’s got local farmers wondering what’s going to happen next 

Morrison says it hasn’t rained there for a long time, but most people grew a lot of grass leading up to Christmas so there has been feed on hand. It seems like a stand-off with people waiting to see if the rain is coming before planning their next move.

“It seems like the works should be flat-stick because everyone should be off-loading stock and while people are booking space the works probably aren’t as full as they might be,” he told Rural News.  “I think people are probably getting the lambs into their yards and finding they’re not as good as they hoped or thought they would be. I believe they are sending off the lambs that are ready and hoping they’re going to get a shower of rain to be able to bring the next bunch along.”

Morrison thinks lambs in the region are probably a bit lighter than what people would hope or like. 

“We have had bad droughts before and this is early – it’s not February – and people are wondering, is this just a typical dry summer or is it going to get worse and will the rain come? Everyone can remember the last three years and how challenging that was.” 

Morrison says the Rangitikei River is running low and it’s possible restrictions on irrigation could be imposed. “The soil moisture maps are out and the deficit looks pretty bad and anyone can see just how dry the grass is.” 

He says farmers should be looking closely at feed budgets and starting to develop a plan they can implement if the situation gets worse.