Dry message goes out

DairyNZ's Craig McBeth drove from Hamilton to Wellington last weekend and got a pretty good idea of the situation, he says.

The drought is severe in Waikato and he was amazed at how dry it was around Otaki in Horowhenua, he says. He knows it is equally dry in parts of Northland's west.

In other parts of the North Island the situation is not so bad. Rain has fallen in central North Island – an area normally quickly affected by drought – and farmers there were generally expecting a dry February. McBeth was in Taranaki recently and saw lush grass growth.

Farmers must understand their own situations, seeing what feed they have in their paddocks and what they have in supplements, he says. And they should decide whether to quit cull cows sooner rather than later.

"Generally speaking there are good levels of supplements on hand to feed cows and dry stock can be grazed off farm.

"It is easier this year whereas 12 months ago the drought was a lot worse and widespread and therefore the level of supplements and feed on hand were less. There are options for farmers and with the payout good they can afford to pay a bit more and keep the cows in lactation."

However, McBeth says farmers need to keep an eye on cows that are in milk to ensure they are not stripping too much body condition off them. It's tempting to do that in a high pay-out year, but farmers need to weigh up the impacts of this on next season, he says.