Balancing books tough
Sheep and beef farmers are finding farm work wet underfoot but most still have feed for ewes and lambs.
The warm and wet conditions at the more than half way stage through November have farmers concerned about mud in gateways, and many farmers have crops going in late after weeks of rain and mud.
Rangitikei hill country farmer William Morrison said it had been a typical in spring.
‘‘On sunny days grass appears to double in height, but nothing much happens on the grey drizzly days.’’
He said docking percentages were back about 10 per cent and other farms would be in the same position.
‘‘This would be disappointing, however the context was an awful autumn tupping with no grass and lots of facial eczema. So we are relatively satisfied. Docking was completed earlier. Lambs are a little bigger than usual, but like lambs everywhere, they need a bit of sun and warmth to bolt away with their growth rates.’’
Morrison said sheep fecal egg counts were on the rise.
‘‘Ewe body condition was very mixed at docking. The focus at Mangara [farm] is about eating as much grass as possible to add body condition to ewes and cows and this spring is helping to resolve this.
‘‘We are having to be quite organised to try to balance the Mangara development planned for this summer with the lower than usual expected lamb values. But we are more up-beet about the good season than down-beet about the expected prices.
Denis Hocking who farms near Bulls said the sand country was saturated.
‘‘When sand country cockies are complaining about a surfeit of moisture, chances are it is unusually wet. The good news is that there is plenty of feed, the bad news is that water table is still up at ground level.’’
He said nutrients were being leached and would have to be replaced at a cost to farmers.
Hocking sad he had sold some of his lambs and the prices were worryingly low and probably easing.
‘‘It’s going to be a tough year for farmers heavily dependant on lambs, especially store lambs, and I suspect that their numbers are likely to be down post facial eczema.’’
He said it was difficult to get hay and silage organised.
‘‘I would like to do some lucerne hay by end of month, but with the current 10 day forecast. I don’t know.’’
Hocking said a major harvest of trees in early winter would help his bottom line.
‘‘And that has helped set me up very well for the rest of this financial year. Forestry markets are still strong and I can always look to the trees to plug up any deficits. Pity there aren’t more farmers with this back-up.’’