Feed, grazing, and working groups

Early March 2020, Federated Farmers was called into a small meeting with MPI and AgFirst to discuss the worsening dry conditions across the North Island.

Within the fortnight we were in pandemic lockdown. Not only were the few bales of hay and silage that were left rocketing up in price, farmers had very limited opportunities to bring anything in from the South Island. The meat works had to slow their processing to manage social distancing, lack of freezer and chiller space as the flights stopped and they had nowhere to send the meat.

The working group that was pulled together had to come up with solutions for socially distanced support, identify opportunities to get feed to the farmers who truly needed it, and all within the new COVID environment.

Twelve months on, we have some small stockpiles of hay and silage in pockets of the country. Winter crops in some areas are looking ok (not great, but ok), but the East Coast which was still largely in recovery from 2020, is now looking at a second winter of limited feed due to poor crop establishment rates and/or not having sufficient stock drinking water where the feed is.

On April 28 the Minister for Agriculture announced an extension of large scale adverse event funding to November in Marlborough, North Canterbury and the Chatham Islands (and also extended the drought classification to include Mid and South Canterbury and Otago) to keep the feed working group and the feed and grazing coordination service going. This means we can continue to match the feed from farmers who want to sell to drought affected farmers. We can continue supporting farmers through community events, farmer visits and feed planning services.

We just need you. We need farmers who have feed to sell and grazing available. And we need the farmers who need this assistance to register. Head to the Federated Farmers website under the support tab to find the adverse events page.