Difficult harvest for farmers
Twice the normal rainfall in March followed by four times the amount in April has put a disastrous end to the harvest for South Canterbury’s arable farmers.
Federated Farmers arable chairman for South Canterbury Mike Porter said he ‘‘struggled and battled’’ his way through harvest and finished last week.
‘‘It’s been a very challenging harvest - the most challenging I have ever known.’’
‘‘We were set-up so well with showers in November and December - the crops were doing well. Then there was the dull overcast weather over the Christmas period which slowed the ripening process down so where we would normally be harvesting ryegrass in the middle of January we were delayed until the end of February.’’
Federated Farmers arable industry group chairman Guy Wigley said the harvest had been ‘‘very tough’’ on arable farmers.
‘‘Their spirits aren’t high,’’ he said.
‘‘Quite a lot of farmers still had 10 per cent of their crop to bring in at the beginning of April when all that heavy rain came. Some are still harvesting late crops of barley, radish and red clover. It would be normal for radish and red clover to be this late but the barley is running three to four weeks behind. The rain will have caused sprouting.’’
Added to this worry, farmers had been unable to sow crops for next season because the ground had been so wet. The poor season had carried over into the next financial year, Porter said.
He said this would be ‘‘quite a hit’’ for South Canterbury’s arable farmers, especially those on heavier country.
‘‘I am less than a quarter of the way through planting for next season.’’
Porter said he wasn’t sure whether he would be able to honour his grain and seed contracts for next year if he couldn’t get his ryegrass varieties in on time. ‘‘I may have to forfeit that contract to someone in a different area who can get that crop in on time. The pressure is coming on us to make these decisions.’’
He said he would likely see a severe yield penalty of between 20 per cent and 50 per cent for planting in the spring rather than autumn. South Canterbury has a ‘‘notoriously fickle’’ spring which made planting difficult, he said.
‘‘It all depends on the weather. If it is going to be cold and wet I will have to pull the pin on the contract by mid-May.
‘‘As it is, with two-thirds of the farm wet, there is no time for me to do the planting I need to. I have to be realistic and decide it just may not happen.’’
Wigley said his worry was that he had only managed to plant half his early maturing crops, which included oil seed rape. It was too late to plant the rest, he said. The cut off was last weekend.
‘‘This was a consequence of not being able to do the burning I needed to do because of the fire ban that was initiated with the Port Hills fires. But no one anticipated the prolonged autumn where the opportunities for burning were few and far between.’’
Wigley said he was not confident all the crops he planted would be a success. It had been too wet, too cold and the coming frosts would destroy seedlings.
‘‘The last part of the harvest has been very difficult. Planting has been very difficult and that has been exacerbated by being unable to burn stubble.’’
Farmers were now concerned about looking after their incomes for the next harvest.
‘‘I have had a contract offered me at 10 per cent above last yearso that is encouraging’’