Bay of Plenty kiwfruit growers are being kept awake at night over the worker shortage and calves are being weaned, drenched and vaccinated in South Otago. Find out more in our wrap of what's happening on the farms and orchards of New Zealand.
Logging truck heading to Gisborne port Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Northland's reasonably dry and most areas need rain. There was a tremendous surge of growth a couple of weeks ago but that has slowed down.
Despite last week's downpour and a little more rain this week around Pukekohe, ground conditions dried out sufficiently to allow growers to cultivate soils. As for harvesting mature crops, it is likely to be all on from now as Christmas draws near.
Waikato has better quality pasture now thankfully after November's horrible stalky offerings. Farmers have been managing it by making silage and topping. Hopefully milk production will lift now. November was great in terms of rain - for the first time in more than a year Waikato hit its average monthly rainfall. Having said that parts are still 300 to 400 mms down on the year-to-date average.
In the Bay of Plenty kiwifruit pollination has come to an end. Zespri has released its five year forecast and prices are looking strong. The global dariy price has lifted too. Kiwfruit growers are being kept awake at night wondering whether the industry will have the workforce it needs.
The farmer we called in King Country was weighing milk lambs. Heavy ones were heading straight to the works at about 34 kilograms. Lighter ones are being weaned and their mums shorn. Taumarunui has had a fair bit of rain and unusually for the district, wind. We're told there's more grass than ever for the time of year - so much that the quality is likely to go off because it can't all be eaten.
It's been wild, wet and windy in Taranaki this week. Milk production's down about 5 to 10 percent on last November with little energy in the grass because of the wet, dull weather and some people tight for feed because of delayed silage harvesting. But fine weather arrived at the end of the week so contractors will be burning the candle, cutting and baling.
Seaweed drying on a paddock fence in Tairāwhiti Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
A vineyard owner in Gisborne says they're desperate for workers. They're upping their wages but the lack of worker accommodation is a real problem. It's all hands on deck running from the office to the vineyard lifting wires to keep the vine canopies tidy and keeping on top of all the jobs that need doing with fewer hands to do the work.
Hawkes Bay has had phenomenal growth - parts of the region have had 200 to 300 percent of their normal November rainfall. Aquifer levels are improving and farmers are generally a lot happier than they were a month ago. Around Wairoa some kale crops due to feed stock next winter drowned in the heavy rain and will need to be re-planted. With lots of farms understocked because of the drought there are not enough mouths to eat the bolting grass.
Farmers in Wairarapa are also trying to get their baleage and silage in. Our contact says there hasn't been a decent window of fine weather for two or three weeks and everything is over mature. Feed quality goes down if you can't get it off in time. His lambs are fetching about 20 to 25 dollars a head less than last year - with last year's exceptional prices a hard act to follow.
Unsettled weather has also held things up in Manawatu and Rangitikei. Weaning's just started There's an abundance of baleage dotted around the region's paddocks despite wet weather causing a few silage wagons to get stuck.
Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
In the Tasman region hop training is nearly complete in Tapawera. The vines, which have stout stems with stiff hairs to aid climbing, are growing up the strings and receiving regular fertiliser and weed control. One grower is very lucky to have the help from 16 RSE workers. They're a Tongan group based at a nearby Motueka apple orchard.
A farmer in the Marlborough Sounds says they have just come to the end of a brilliant spring with plenty of regular rain. They've been working on road maintenance to a remote sheep yard that needs to have truck and trailer access for weaning in January. Calves are still waiting for marking and there's scrub-cutting work to be done.
On the West Coast, a Grey Valley dairy farmer says regular showers this week have been a nuisance for people wanting to make baleage. Cows are keeping grass down pretty well but quality's an issue, as some paddocks have gone to seed earlier than usual.
After a very cold weekend with lots of rain, the remainder of the week in Canterbury has been dominated by strong nor'west winds. This has put fertiliser application and spraying on hold while farmers wait for the wind to die down. Soil moisture that was really good last weekend is getting stripped with the hot, dry wind.
A lot of diesel is being burnt in South Otago. Crops and grass are going in, people are spraying and getting urea onto paddocks and quite a bit of silage is being made. Calves are being weaned, drenched and vaccinated. Cows are milking well.
A dairy cow enjoys having her head scratched after milking Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
It's the same story in Southland with crops being sown and silage contractors busy. Our contact at Blackmount in the west of the region says there are still a few paddocks that need to dry out before a tractor can go in. He only has a handful of two year old beef stock left on the farm. The bulk has gone to the freezing works at an average live weight of 670 kilos.
On the Farm is a weekly wrap of farming conditions around New Zealand.
