Farmers uneasy as big dry chases wet
Farmers in some parts of the country could be in trouble if it does not rain soon.
Northland and Auckland’s west coast, Taranaki, Manawatu, Canterbury and Southland are drier than normal and contractors are concerned that grass has stopped growing for silage and hay making. However, isolated parts of Taranaki received a smattering of rain a week ago.
Weatherwatch’s Philip Duncan said farmers should ‘‘bank on chaotic weather’’ this spring and summer. While some forecasters had picked a La Nina pattern developing, Duncan said he was not so certain. Both La Nina and El Nino were predictable, but the present pattern was fickle, shifting from one of the wettest years on record to dry in some regions.
Contractor Kerry Ploen, of KP Contracting in Manawatu, said he would normally be flat out making balage. ‘‘The grass isn’t growing, we should be in the middle of the spring flush now with good grass coming out our ears but there’s nothing at the moment. I’ve got thousands of orders for bales of hay and without rain a lot of farmers are going to miss out.’’
He said paddocks looked green after the ‘‘big wet’’ of early spring, but there was no growth.
Rural Contractors NZ president Steve Levet said parts of the country had gone from one extreme to another and Canterbury and the west coast of Northland needed rain.
Duncan said there was a heatwave in areas such as Central Otago where some centres had recorded 33 degrees Celsius. Southland had received early spring rain, but had since started to dry out.
Federated Farmers Taranaki provincial president Donald McIntyre said parts of Taranaki had 15 millimetres of rain late last month but in coastal areas it was becoming parched. ‘‘It’s green but there’s not a lot of grass there. One farmer I was speaking to said he normally makes 200 bales of silage, but he’s only made 70 ... The rain is very isolated, if you’re unlucky it might stop at the end of the road.’’
Duncan said apart from an area of low pressure coming in about the middle of December, it looked like high pressure would dominate to the end of the year.