Taranaki dairy farms saved by $10/kgMS payout

South Taranaki Vets chief executive Dr Stephen Hopkinson told Rural News that the high payout has meant that farmers have been able to afford to buy in massive amounts of supplements to keep their cows in good condition for next season or to milk on a bit longer. He says on two farms that he knows well, the cows are getting just 2-3kg of grass DM and the other 12kg they get are coming from supplements.

“I don’t know what would have happened if the milk price had been around seven dollars,” he says.

Hopkinson says the worst affected area is just north of Patea, up through Hawera, across to Manaia and halfway up to Opunake. He says the rest of the coast up to Waitara has been hit but not as badly as those farmers further south. He says the south Taranaki region had zero pasture growth rates through February and March and there were lots of bare paddocks.

The big problem is a lack of rain, not just this season but an overhang of dry conditions from last season.

Hopkinson says ideally the dry parts of the region need about 200mm of rain spread over two months. He says farmers around Manaia have benefited from a local water scheme put in back in 1971 after a bad drought, but he says even they have suffered big pressure drops in the past few months.

“In the Hawera and Kakaramea areas, lots of farmers have had bores and wells dry up and they have had to drill new ones and truck water in daily for their cows as well as for their own homes. Dams and springs have dried up and are no longer running despite the rain.

“The word we are hearing is, when drilling for water with sustainable pressure, they are having to go down to between 200 and 250 metres – almost twice as deep as their existing bores,” he says.

Hopkinson says they ran several seminars for farmers and gave them advice on how to manage their way through the drought. He says they encouraged them to cull their cows early and then to dry off their heifers early as well. The effect of this was that some farmers were only milking about half their herds. The plus of that he says is that with supplement brought in from outside the region, cow condition is very good.

Grass Grub

Some dairy farmers in South Taranaki have been dealt a double whammy – grass grub.

Vet Stephen Hopkinson says many pastures in the coastal region have been hit by this pest which has added to the damage caused by the drought.

One option is to spray for grass grub, but Hopkinson says this isn’t easy and the answer is to re-sow the paddocks.

“We got an expert in to talk to farmers. He says with grass grub, if you use coated seed the coating on the seed will ensure that the grass germinates and is not eaten by the grass grub. So, the recommendation is coated seed. But a lot of farmers have just gone for the cheaper option and so the grass grub will still be an issue on those farms,” he says.

Finally, Hopkinson says despite the terrible problems caused by the drought, it seems that very little if any actual pasture has died and once the rains come it will spring back to life. The other good news is that soil and air temperatures are still quite high, meaning pasture will continue to grow during winter. However, with Taranaki getting just 60% of its average rainfall last year, more rain is needed to recharge aquifers and dams and return to whatever normal may look like.

Helping Out

With up to 50% cows being dried off early on some farms, the consequences for contract milkers are big and their future is in the hands of the farm owner. Stephen Hopkinson says a lot will depend on their relationship with the owner of the farm.

There are two schools of thought on how this might play out. Hopkinson says if a farm owner hired a contract milker just to make more money for themselves, there is the possibility that the contract milker may be left to their own devices and forced to take another job because there will no income for them from the farm until the next season.

Brendan Attrill, who chairs Federated Farmers Share Farm owners’ group, has been reaching out to owners to look after their contract milkers and get them through this tough period. Attrill is a farm owner and farm consultant as well and says farm owners should be able to help contract milkers because most have got substantial equity in their businesses and given the $10 payout should be able to help out. He says from the discussions he’s had with farm owners so far, most appear willing to help.

“Our message to owners is sit down and have a cup of coffee with your contract milker and just have a general positive discussion about the situation.

“The second thing is we want is the contract milkers to come to the owners with a clear plan as to how they are going to manage the cows through and particularly if they are tight on feed and supplements now,” he says.

After all, he says this whole situation is just driven by hungry cows and a lack of feed for them – nothing to do with the actions of the people involved.

Hopkinson agrees and says no one wants to see good people leave.