Desperate feed shortage looms
The sting in Gabrielle’s tail will come at a busy time later in the year when extra feed is often critical.
It is feared some farmers have had their valuable winter feed crops completely wiped out by Cyclone Gabrielle, which will cause further headaches in the coming months.
Dairy farmers typically spend the warmer months preparing hay and silage as feed for winter and spring.
Last year about 1.2 million tonnes of maize silage was produced as supplementary feed for livestock, particularly on dairy farms — but entire crops have since been lost to the cyclone.
Federated Farmers’ president Andrew Hoggard said there would be feed challenges in the coming months after crops were flattened or destroyed and the group would coordinate donations and supplies when needed.
AgFirst consultant Tafi Manjala said with so much crop destruction, especially in Hawke’s Bay, many farmers would now be well behind on their normal feed supplies come winter, and would need to rely on supplementary feed.
“If people don’t have enough supplement on hand, they’re going to have to purchase additional feed from the market, which adds on to farm costs,” Manjala said.
“Crop yields have generally been low, given the wetness that has delayed planting and in some instances damaged planting over the past few months and of course, the recent cyclone that flattened some maize crops in certain areas.”
Manjala said Cyclone Gabrielle had hit farmers at a bad time, as they tended to take things a bit easier right about now in order to be well-rested ahead of the typically busy winter period.
“It will make things really stressful at a really busy time of year,” he said.
“At this time of the year, people expect to be taking a bit of a break and you want to be going into winter refreshed, especially for dairy farmers.
“But some farmers have got a huge cleanup ahead of them and if you’re going into winter after a huge workload like that, it will compound onto that stress.”
His advice for affected farmers was to sit down, take stock and make a list of priorities.
“There’s a lot of things to be done,
but there’s some activities that are more important than others, like making sure that your cows are milked, making sure that you’ve got secure boundary fences so you can secure your stock, making sure that you can feed those animals so that you keep them in production.”
It was also important to accept help when it was offered, he said.
“A lot of us in farming communities feel we can do things and make things happen ourselves, but a huge effort will be required to recover, get as much help as you can.” ■