fbpx
Print this page
Tuesday, 03 May 2022 09:55

Tricky season for Naki farmers

Written by  Peter Burke
Taranaki farmers says slow pasture growth and bad weather have hampered milk production. Taranaki farmers says slow pasture growth and bad weather have hampered milk production.

It's been a very challenging season for Taranaki dairy farmers, according to local DairyNZ consulting officer, Ashley Primrose.

She says farmers are describing the season as one where they are just keeping their heads above water.

She says it's been quite hard for them in terms of the unusually slow pasture grass growth which has seen some farmers taking up to a month later than normal to reach balance date.

Primrose says this was not the best way to start the season.

"As a result of the inconsistent pasture growth, not as much supplement - especially silage - was made as might have been expected," she told Dairy News.

"We have had periods of dry, which is pretty uncharacteristic for Taranaki, and then we had some massive rainfall events. The heavy downpour at Waitangi weekend was followed by another big rainfall event the following weekend with a result there was quite a bit of damage to farms around the coast," she says.

Primrose says what was unusual was that the whole of the province was affected by the weather events. She says, for example, Midhurst, which is known for its rainfall, suffered an unusually dry spell in January.

"The summer was odd," she says.

The heavy rain did a lot of damage around rivers with some riparian plantings washed away and bridges and culverts damaged. Primrose says some crops that were planted in February were damaged and some maize crops were affected by wind.

Covers around the province are a bit of a mixed bag, she says. She notes that some farmers started feeding out supplements that had been earmarked for winter use.

"This is a bit of a worry but people seem to have recognised this and have been buying in extra feed to make up that which they have used. Hopefully everyone has recognised the need to have sufficient supplements to last them through winter and have done something about this," she says.

Primrose says there has been quite a lot of chat about the price of supplements for next season - especially the likes of PKE.

Ashley Primrose DairyNZ FBTW

DairyNZ consulting officer Ashley Primrose.

Despite the challenges around pasture growth, it appears that like most farmers around the country, few Taranaki farmers have dried off their herds and are milking on. This maybe because of the wait to get cull cows into the works. Primrose says the waiting time has been as long as six weeks.

"Some have managed to get stock away and DairyNZ has been encouraging people to make sure they had stock booked in ahead of time. But people have definitely had to hold onto stock longer than they would have liked," she says.

DairyNZ has also been encouraging farmers to get their cows condition scored and it would appear that across the board the scores are somewhere between four and four point five.

"Our key message to farmers is to make sure they have got feed for winter and into early spring before the grass starts to grow again and just keeping their cows in good condition," she says.

More like this

DairyNZ plantain trials cut nitrate leaching by 26%

DairyNZ says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

National

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

Machinery & Products

Leader balers arrive in NZ

Officially launched at the National Fieldays event in June, the Leader in-line conventional PRO 1900 balers are imported and distributed…

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.