Cold and rain already hitting farmers
Winter has hit, with rain and frosts in the Manawatu, Rangitikei region and farmers are feeling the pinch.
Pasture which had been growing through April, has been stopped in its tracks with cold weather and hitting.
And though it is cold, winter hasn’t officially hit yet.
It’s only late autumn and the paddocks are sodden, gateways are muddy and the water table is full.
Recent frosts have cooled the soil further.
Farmers sloshing around in gumboots on most farms say the water is just under the pasture surface in many places.
They have a lull in the rain, but the ground is cold with frosts hitting.
And rain and cool morning’s has made life hard for farmers and stock.
Dairy farmers drying herds off this month say they luckily have feed on hand. Grass growing through the summer has allowed them to keep supplementary feed in sheds for winter and spring feeding.
DairyNZ’s regional manager, James Muwunganirwa said conditions were very wet on most dairy farms.
He said farmers that could winter herds off the dairy farm were taking the opportunity to remove heavy treading cows and grow some grass ready for their return, usually in July.
Muwunganirwa said dairy farmers should be focusing on getting cows to target body condition scores at calving and concentrate on having enough pasture to calve on.
New Federated Farmers president, sheep and beef farmer Richard Morrison said the wet weather had been taking a toll on farms.
Farmers were finding some small slips appearing on farms, he said.
‘‘We think the rain will balance itself out in a year. But this year, that might not happen.’’
He said many farmers were hoping for a warm and dry winter ahead after a wet spring, wet summer and wet autumn.
‘‘It will depend on the winter. We complain about the weather, but you can’t do anything about it.’’
Lynda Gray who farms at the top of the Pohangina Valley with her husband Tony Gray, said the farm was wet underfoot.
‘‘We had Denis Doughty finally come last Tuesday to spread some fertiliser and he got stuck in places where it isn’t normally wet all winter.’’
She said Doughty ended up leaving half the fertiliser for Tony Gray to spread on the farm by quad. However, feed was holding up well.
She said she and Tony suspected it would be a long, wet winter.
Bulls Farmer Denis Hocking said it was already wet in sand country and frosts would not have helped, with ground cooling off.
‘‘Ground water is up at ground level or above over much of the sand country with major risk of serious pugging. ‘‘
He said the good news was that there was plenty of supplementary feed.