Coast farmers welcome rain
Farmers are relieved after the first significant rainfall in two months swept across their West Coast properties.
The Government declared a mediumscale drought event for the Buller and Grey districts on Wednesday.
Yet between 80mm and 125mm of rain fell at some Grey Valley farms between then and yesterday.
Ahaura’s Warren Smith reported
80mm to Thursday morning – a stark contract to the previous two months, when his farm had only received about
30mm.
The dry spell, which began in November, dried his soil and affected feed for his herd of more than 600 cows. It was unusual to see soil crack open on the West Coast, he said.
‘‘It looked like Canterbury here two days ago. The biggest thing is we’re short of feed. If this lasts for a week, [or] two weeks we will start getting a bit more feed,’’ Smith said.
‘‘Up until now we had been eating what was left in previous rounds so we’re down to using silage and palm kernel, and it’s just the bits and pieces left. There’s nothing left now, so this rain now will get us out of a lot of trouble.’’
Smith said the recent rain and further forecast of more showers over the the next week could be a ‘‘real drought breaker’’.
‘‘Hopefully we won’t get a normal drought which is February, March. If we get that we’ll be in big trouble.’’
Normally he would grow crops now to feed the herd through February and March. Some had failed, some of the fields sown later have had success, he said.
‘‘For the winter I do swedes, [they’re] going quite well. Luckily, [we] just got enough rain to get them going, last two days they’ve almost doubled in size.’’
Lifelong Atarau farmer Paul Berry had measured 125mm over the past three days in the Grey Valley.
Berry said he was fortunate he had some irrigation at his 280-hectare farm, but he felt for others who did not have irrigated land.
‘‘I think we all appreciate [the rainfall], old mother nature can knock you round a bit so it’s really good stuff to get that amount of rain.
‘‘Just a pity mother nature didn’t treat us a bit more evenly, but that’s the way it is in our job,’’ he said.
‘‘Hopefully from now on we’re going to get a bit of this sort of weather for the next week, or the next week and a half, and hopefully we get a pretty good autumn as we usually do.’’
He complimented farmers who had acted swiftly on contingency plans while production and growth was affected during November and December.
‘‘A lot of have had to put a lot of inputs in because they’ve had no alternative really, they’ve stuck it out and good on them, it’s great.’’
While seeing how the summer goes, many have no choice in looking after their animals’ welfare.
‘‘If you need a feed a fair bit of feed its going to be pretty expensive, but we’ve got no choice we have to look after our stock and we’re pretty proud of that,’’ he said.
‘‘Have to look after them now to make sure they’re in good nick later on.’’
The medium-scale event will remain for six months and the Ministry of Primary industries will continue to monitor the situation, a Ministry for Primary Industries spokeswoman said.