Spring lifts farmers’ spirits
Spring has arrived, and with it some good weather, bringing relief to farmers in the region. Feiding-based farm advisor Gary Massicks said farmers felt a ‘‘whole lot better after spring temperatures’’.
He said after a wet winter, the region went ten days without rain, and the few millimetres that fell had been largely welcomed.
Massicks said lambing was about to get underway on hill country in earnest.
‘‘There has been relief. Feed was tight all through winter. We had a record scanning percentage of lambs, so we want good conditions so that those lambs survive.’’
He said ewe and cow condition was good, as beef cows and ewes went into the winter in great shape after a wet summer.
Federated Farmers Manawatu/ Rangitikei president Richard Morrison said most sheep and beef farmers had started lambing.
‘‘The down country guys have probably nearly finished but the hills are filling up fast with lambs as well.’’
He said last week’s good weather was a godsend. ‘‘It was great for morale, but also dried things out underfoot a bit and gave the livestock a good reprieve from the weather. Sheep farmers often say ‘lambs grow on sunshine’.’’
He said the animal health reports tended to reflect issues that correlated to stock being in good condition with sufficient pasture covers. These issues are cast ewes, milk fever, bearings, he said.
‘‘There are no reports of things like sleepy sickness, or larger than expected lamb losses, these would reflect stock being in poorer condition and feed being in short supply. So from this I guess we can say that things are going along pretty well on the sheep and beef farm.’’
Morrison said prices for both sheep and beef meat were pretty good and saleyard prices reflected optimism with most sale price better than last year.
Most dairy cows have calved and milk is flowing.
Dairynz’s Southern North Island regional manager James Muwunganirwa said the sunny spell meant warmer and drier conditions which farmers liked.
‘‘It is still relatively wet but pasture growth is slowly increasing. Pasture covers are still lower than desired and grass utilisation is still low. ‘‘
He said farmers had generally been using a lot of supplement such as silage and palm kernel and cows had been responding and milking well.
‘‘There have been reports of lots of lameness due to races being in poor condition.’’
However he said as weather conditions improved, Dairynz was urging farmers not to speed up their grazing rotation.
Muwunganirwa said there were options to use nitrogen and gibberellic acid to build up pasture cover.
‘‘Most importantly farmers should take the opportunity to get off farm and catch up with fellow farmers. The local Dairynz and Farmsource teams are organising some drop-in breakfasts for farmers in early September.’’
Federated Farmers dairy chairman, Murray Holdaway said things had improved with the weather.
‘‘We had about a week of sunny conditions although they were cold nights with a couple of frosts and since then it has been warm, sunny spells but with cloud and a few showers, so good growing conditions.’’
The ground conditions have improved so pasture use is much better, he said.
‘‘We still need good growing conditions to continue because pasture supply and supplement supply is ‘on the knife edge’ but the sunny and dry weather has helped farmers’ spirits and improved their confidence that the spring may still produce good production levels.’’