Rain bypasses stricken farmer
I thought [Cyclone] Pam might have given me a wee flick. I got 1mm on Monday and 1mm on Tuesday.
David Meares
Greta Valley farmer
Not even the leftovers from a cyclone have helped droughtstricken North Canterbury sheep and cattle David Meares.
His hill country farm at Greta Valley, north of Amberley, had about 6 millimetres of rain in January, 18mm in February and 6mm so far this month. The paddocks are bare and almost grey. Any green seen in the heavy gullies was probably from morning dew, he said.
‘‘I thought [Cyclone] Pam might have given me a wee flick. I got 1mm on Monday and 1mm on Tuesday.’’
Meares’ farm has had ‘‘unbelievably little rain’’. In midJanuary he wondered whether he was panicking by selling some of his best lambs earlier than usual. Now he has offloaded nearly all stock except essential breeding ewes and cows.
He expects he will have to sell 550 ewes he sent to a neighbour’s place for grazing. They are due home soon and he has little feed.
The priority now was feeding his core 2000 ewes and 70-odd cows so they were in good condition for spring.
He has bought two trailer-loads of ryegrass and one of pea vine (pea crop residue) as extra feed.
Strong demand for cattle in the North Island was promising, he said, and some of his stock would likely be heading that way.
Meares felt left out of the rain loop. His farm had some from a nor-westerly a fortnight ago but others nearby got about 20mm.
Near Oxford, the going was better. Alliance Group chairman Murray Taggart’s property has had 24.5mm of rain since Monday and 47.5mm so far this month.
The monthly average was 50mm.
The rain had come late but it was having an effect, he said.
In South Canterbury the Lake Opuha reservoir is 1.7 per cent full compared to the usual 80 per cent for this time of year.
Rain was forecast for this weekend but the dam would need to be 8 or 9 per cent full to allow irrigation again before winter, Opuha Water chief executive Tony McCormick said.
‘‘We’re far from on the road to recovery.’’
A MetService spokesman said Canterbury rainfall since midnight on Monday ranged from nearly 30mm in the central Canterbury hills to as little as 0.6mm in Timaru. The spread included: Snowdon Station (Rakaia Gorge) 27mm Darfield 19.4mm Le Bons (Banks Peninsula) 14.2mm Fairlie 12.8mm Christchurch Airport 9.2mm Ashburton 8.6mm Pukaki Airport (Mackenzie Basin) 4mm Culverden 1mm Timaru 0.6mm