Harvesting underway

With pea pods popping in the 30 degree Canterbury heat, Greendale farmer Earl Worsfold hopes this will be a good season for farmers.

Worsfold was harvesting 20ha of blue peas near Darfield last week, destined for Indian food markets. He says at the moment crops on drylands farms appear to be a bit more advanced than those with irrigation.

As the dry weather stretches on he predicts those with water will do better than those without.

With the wells already dry on the 360ha Worsfold family farm they are hoping for rain in the coming weeks to tide them over to winter.

As shareholders in the Central Plains Water scheme the Worsfolds are eagerly awaiting the completion of its second stage, which will bring a consistent water supply to their farm.

Federated Farmers Arable representative for North Canterbury Alan Harvey says the harvest has started with the drylands farms harvesting first, but he reckons it is too early to predict yields.

With about 75% of NZ's pea crop grown in Canterbury and close to 70% of all crops in NZ grown across 140,000ha in Canterbury, everyone from farmers to economists will be watching to see how much production is affected by the prolonged dry spell.