Strong uptake of good wintering practices
DairyNZ has seen a significant increase in the number of farmers improving their wintering practices, which results in a higher standard of animal care and environmental protection.
DairyNZ’s Rob Brazendale says the conditions are pretty favourable and overall pasture covers are on target as is cow condition. He says the area has had a much better winter than last year which saw a lot of pugging damage and notes this hasn’t been the case so far.
Brazendale farmers are generally pretty comfortable and most things are on target and everyone is looking forward to a good spring. He there has been a lot of rain in Central Hawkes Bay and there has also been quite a bit of rain in the Manawatu.
“But it’s the middle of winter so that’s what you expect,” he says.
While things are looking good on farm, Brazendale says farmer morale is mixed. He says farmers are quite positive about the physical things such as the milk price, but says they have concerns about the environmental challenges and some of the other issues such as the restrictions on the use of PKE.
“These latter things have taken a bit of an edge off the other positive factors. I wouldn’t say the mod was really buoyant but it not depressed either - it’s kind of flat. There is a lot of uncertainty around land values across the country and there are lot of farms for sale,” he says.
