Rain brings relief for farmers
Downpour welcomed after driest January on record
‘‘When you have an early dry like this, you tend to feed out supplement that you usually use for winter, and we have to be aware of that and start planning ahead. ’’
Colin Guyton
Federated Farmers Rotorua/Taupō provincial president
After the driest January on record, Taupō farmers were almost counting the raindrops at Waitangi weekend when the heavens opened, dropping almost 44 millimetres of rain.
Taupō residents welcomed 43.8mm of rain on Sunday and Monday, more than two-thirds of the average rainfall of 62mm expected in February, with more forecast for the end of this week.
MetService meteorologist Peter Little said official records began being taken at the Taupō Airport in 1976 and the average daily temperature of 17.9 degrees Celsius for last month was more than 1C hotter than the average normal for January of 16.7C.
January 4 was the hottest day this year, hitting 29.8C, and the lowest overnight temperature was just 3.2C, on January 28.
The highest temperature recorded at Taupō Airport was 32C on January 6, 1999.
Little said what was also remarkable was that the lowest maximum daily temperature was 20.8C, with not a single daily maximum lower than 20C for the entire month.
He said just 3.8mm of rain fell on Taupō last month, well below the monthly average of 65mm, making it the driest January on record.
The next driest January was in 1979, with 9.7mm of rain recorded.
The weekend’s rain was the first for February and was more than welcome according to
Federated Farmers Rotorua/ Taupō provincial president Colin Guyton.
With more rain forecast, farmers would be taking a big sigh of relief, Guyton said.
‘‘Not only was it dry, it was extremely hot, so the combination of the two definitely affected grass growth for the month.
‘‘We always need two lots of rain when it’s this bad, to kickstart grass growth again.
‘‘Most farmers in the region will be short of grass for the next three weeks, provided we get that follow-up rain in the coming week – many of them will be using up some of their winter stocks.’’
Guyton said when long, dry grass gets wet it becomes unpalatable for stock and cows won’t eat it. ‘‘We had good rain in December, so we were fairly positive, but
January was a really tough month, especially mentally, but for us older farmers we’ve seen it all before, and it’s definitely ups and downs.
‘‘When you have an early dry like this, you tend to feed out supplement that you usually use for winter, and we have to be aware of that and start planning ahead.’’
Guyton said after the weekend’s rain there had been some relief, and the forecast rain should bring them back on track.
‘‘Where I am, in Reporoa, I’m not aware of any rain falling in January.
‘‘The soil temperature was really high too, and grass won’t grow in hot soil.’’
According to the Taupō District Council and a Taupō Fire Station spokesperson, there were no call-outs for flooding or weather-related events in the district over the weekend.