Tuesday, 05 March 2019 09:35

Drying out

Written by  Peter Burke

Reports from many regions say the green grass seen on farms in January has now turned brown.

Certainly this is so on the east coast of both the North and South Islands.

In Waikato, the farm consultancy company AgFirst says things are looking dry on farm. Steven Howarth told Rural News they had a good spring and summer with plenty of feed. But this has burnt off and the promised rain that fell a week ago wasn’t the quantity they were looking for.

“The conditions have created some challenges for farmers with some struggling to get space at processing plants to get their stock killed,” he says.

Howarth says lamb performance has also been variable: good growth rates for some while others struggle with the dry conditions.

Beef cattle have had a good summer, says Agfirst, but now the challenge is getting stock killed after farmers held them back to put on extra weight.

With rain and warm temperatures, the warning is out to farmers to monitor spore counts as there is a risk of facial eczema in some regions, notably the King Country.

“But countering that some cold spells have reduced the risk,” Howarth says.

Apart from this, Howarth says relatively good livestock prices have helped keep up morale onfarm.

More like this

Farmers urged to prepare as heavy rain looms

With adverse weather set to rain down on the Top of the South, the Bay of Plenty and parts of Northland, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says farmers, foresters, and growers need to prepare for possible challenges.

Contract milkers hit hard by drought crisis

Many contract milkers in badly drought affected regions around the country are coming under severe financial stress and farm owners are being urged to help them through a bad patch until the start of the new season.

Featured

Editorial: Right call

OPINION: Public pressure has led to Canterbury Police rightly rolling back its proposed restructure that would have seen several rural police stations closed in favour of centralised hubs.

Owl Farm marks 10 years as NZ’s first demonstration dairy farm

In 2015, the signing of a joint venture between St Peter's School, Cambridge, and Lincoln University saw the start of an exciting new chapter for Owl Farm as the first demonstration dairy farm in the North Island. Ten years on, the joint venture is still going strong.

National

Machinery & Products

New McHale terra drive axle option

Well-known for its Fusion baler wrapper combination, Irish manufacturer McHale has launched an interesting option at the recent Irish Ploughing…

Amazone unveils flagship spreader

With the price of fertiliser still significantly higher than 2024, there is an increased onus on ensuring its spread accurately at…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

The real emergency

The nutters of the green world, aided and abetted by the lamestream media, are rewriting the English language for the worse.

A very low road

OPINION: The self righteous activists at Greenpeace are copying the self-righteous lefties behind the ‘free Palestine’ movement – not surprising given…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter