Rain goes in deep along East Coast

The rain that caused havoc on the East Coast over the past few days has been a boon for the unusually dry soils in Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay that have been sorely in need of a recharge.

Wairarapa may have escaped some of the worst droughts this year, but the rain that has fallen to date has only scratched the surface – until now.

Martinborough farmer Mark Guscott monitors soil moisture levels across his property and some of his readings were showing summer-like conditions beneath the surface before the weekend.

‘‘It was basically in the middle-ofsummer mode all the way through autumn,’’ he said.

He said though some rain throughout the year had penetrated the surface layer, deeper down it was still dry. ‘‘The 300 millimetre stuff hadn’t moved.’’

On Saturday night his monitoring gear finally registered water showing the moisture was only just starting to get deep into the soils.

‘‘We need the water to keep going down quite a bit yet to have any hope of making it through to Christmas time, come the early summer.’’

Federated Farmers Wairarapa branch president William Beetham said the region was fortunate to escape too much damage from the recent rain system and the soils were now in much better shape looking forward to next spring.

‘‘If you do go through an extended dry patch through winter then that can seriously impact our ability to grow grass in spring, which is our main time of year for production,’’ Beetham said.

‘‘If you don’t recharge the water systems it’s not just an effect for farmers, it’s an effect on the whole environment and water availability for all our communities.’’

Greater Wellington Regional Council monitoring at Whareama, east of Masterton, showed rainfall from the beginning of January to mid-June was well short of previous years’ figures. From January 1 to June 16 there had been 372mm of rain this year. That figure was 394mm last year, at 465mm in 2019, 790mm in 2018, and 688mm in 2017 over the same period.

Since last Friday, that east coast monitoring gauge at Whareama has recorded an additional 175mm of rain.

‘‘Now we’ve had a good burst of rain, let’s hope we get a few follow-ups,’’ Beetham said.

Federated Farmers Hawke’s Bay president Jim Galloway said the rain was badly needed in his area and they were hoping it stayed reasonably warm to grow some more grass for winter feed.