Displaying items by tag: Drought

Around the Hawke's Bay region, the grass in the paddocks is looking greener as it recovers from two bad seasons of drought.

Farmers and growers affected by drought or floods in Marlborough, Tasman, West Coast, Canterbury, Otago and the Chatham Islands will have access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPs), Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni has announced.

Farmers in Hawke's Bay have now experienced two successive years of bad droughts, which has stretched their farm management skills to the limit. Watching this and working with farmers to mitigate the problems are two experienced AgFirst farm consultants based in Hastings - Lochie MacGillivray and Phil Tither. They talked with reporter Peter Burke about what they have seen and what works best.

Top dressing today is pretty much at the same level as it was pre-Covid, according to the Agricultural Aviation Association (AAA).

Drought hit Mike and Peter Connor’s farms badly and this year their hill properties are parched again.

Even the weeds won't grow.

Driving through Hawke's Bay, the visible effects of the drought are mixed.

The dry in some regions of New Zealand has resulted in sheep farmers wondering how they will get through the coming winter and the impacts this may have one the number and weight of lambs weaned. Massey University's Professor Paul Kenyon looks into the issue.

OPINION:As the dry begins to really bite around different regions of the country, farmers really need to take action to mitigate its affect - both on their livestock and themselves - especially heading into winter.

Hamish Craw's farm on the rugged north-east slopes of Banks Peninsula normally carries 3,500 stock units, but it is now down to fewer than 2,000 as the district’s worst drought in decades continues to bite.