Lake Matahina Photo: supplied
Frosts nipped the heels of many North Island regions this week, while welcome rain fell in Marlborough and Canterbury. Listen to On the Farm for more on conditions on farms and orchards around the country.
Northland has had chilly temperatures in recent days, but not frosty. The kumara harvest is all over and there are plenty of them in storage.The grower we caught up with says the quality is good so they'll be nice eating. He was looking forward to cooler months when the sales generally pick up, but a heads up, he said red kumara will be excellent supermarket buying next week at $3.50 a kilo.
Pukekohe received a little rain on Tuesday and frost Thursday morning, but otherwise it's been fine and calm and the district remains abnormally dry. In the past four and a half months approximately half the normal rain has arrived, leaving a shortfall of at least 200 millimetres. Late crop potatoes were damaged weeks ago by blight and the tops have prematurely collapsed, yields are down and tuber sizes are much smaller. All early onion crops have been sown but it's so dry they needed irrigation for the seed to germinate.
Waikato had between two and 15 mm of rain at the start of the week, which is not enough to do anything much. Western hill sheep and beef farms are dry and dusty, as are dairy farms. And for dairy farmers moving properties at the end of the month, they've edged yet another week closer to that event without any hope of pasture growth picking up. Many will be struggling to meet contractually required pasture cover levels. All parties are being urged to talk to each other to work out manageable solutions.
Photo: Susan Murray/RNZ
It's been marvellous kiwifruit harvesting weather in Bay of Plenty. The last of the gold crop's now pretty well picked and everyone can get into the main green harvest. Despite the labour shortages the fruit's getting packed on time, but growers and packhouses are noticing more damaged fruit from harvesting. The first consignment of kiwifruit for the North American market is unloading now. It shared its journey to the United States with New Zealand apples.
King Country is dry and needs rain. Pastures are short and, now there have been a couple of cracking frosts, growth will slow up even more. Cattle are still hard to get off farms because of a lack of works killing space, but just this week lambs have started to move again which is a relief.
Taranaki also had some good frosts this week with sunny days. Most dairy herds are now dried off and feed level on farms is okay. Production for the year is about six percent behind last season. There's a dusting of snow on Mt Taranaki ... it's late arriving.
Photo: Judy Mellsop
It feels like winter in the Gisborne district now, but grass is still growing. Rain is continuing to arrive on a regular basis which is keeping creeks flowing quite high. Farmers will welcome the cooler temperatures because lambs grow better when it's not so hot. They've been able to send lambs to the works in a timely fashion, although there are still access issues for some, both on farm and with ropey local roads.
Hawkes Bay is continuing to have its best autumn run in years. Grass growth has been so good farmers aren't having to use the amount of nitrogen fertiliser that they normally would and they'll be able to start feeding winter crops later than usual.
It's been spectacular weather in Wairarapa - sunshiny days. A little rain fell earlier in the week which freshened things up quickly but frosts by the week's end will put paid to too much more growth. Dairy production hasn't been startling for the season as a whole, but May milk volumes have been much better than last May. Dairy farmers are milking their empty cows on to the end of the season because they can't get them into the meat works. Farmers are generally bouyant, however.
Horowhenua had very welcome rain this week, between 20 and 40 mm depending where one was. Wonderful welcome rain. There have been a couple of good frosts but with warmer moist weather predicted again there's hope growth will come in this brief window before the real winter hits. Dairy farmers are still milking on.
Gold kiwifruit picking's coming to an end in the Nelson/Motueka region. Dry weather this week has helped havesting a lot. Overall, fruit size is excellent and compared to last year, when a Boxing Day hailstorm devastated the crop, yields are well up. Pickers are moving over to the Hayward variety where there's still about a million trays to come off. Apple havesting's finished and our contact says growers worked really well together to ensure everyone had staff to pick and pack the fruit.
Marlborough's had 30 mm of the wet stuff on Monday and it was needed, says a farmer near Blenheim. The farm has 1500 kilograms of dry matter per hectare of grass cover so feed levels are looking pretty good for winter. Out in the paddock, rams have finished their work with the ewes and pre-lamb shearing's just around the corner; while in the provinces' vineyards, pruning's getting underway.
A much needed rain fell this week over Canterbury. Things were on the dry side and some farmers were using small amounts of irrigation. Normally, irrigation systems are switched off by now. Dairy cows, beef cattle and sheep are just starting on winter feed crops as pasture growth slows up. The last wheat crops are being planted and annual winter farm maintenance is in full swing.
Photo: Michael Godfrey
A Barrytown farmer on the West Coast says a localised rain storm on Sunday caused slips from there south to Greymouth. A digger's been clearing the road, some paddocks are covered in logs, silt and rocks and he says a large shed was wiped out on a neighbouring farm - just missing the house. Apart from that the weather been lovely, he says. Dairy farmers are spreading lime and supplementary feeding cows. Herds are slowly being dried off. Some surplus to requirement cows are still on farm as delays at the freezing works continue.
In South Otago a sheep farmer near Balclutha says with only four mm of rain this month the ground is getting dry. Grass covers are low going into winter too, so he's having a close look at the feed budget to ensure there's enough supplementary feed to carry through to spring. It comes down to the last kilo, he says. Costs are going through the roof, with grain nearly double the price it was a year ago. He says the last of the works lambs have finally gone and a late application of urea's been applied to paddocks to boost winter growth.
Photo: Michael Godfrey
Grass growth's doing okay in Southland after some good rain in April. A farmer at Edendale says it's the best early May he's seen in ten years but overall, it's been the worst season ever for grass growth - down four tonnes per hectare of grass. Milk production's down a tad on last year but it's not too bad, all things considered. He says drying off will start in ten days with the early calvers. Farmers have been visiting wintering blocks to measure the feed crops. This is to ensure they are paying for what they get. At $40-a-week per cow for ten weeks it's an expensive stay. The farmer we talked to says wintering his cows off-farm costs him hundreds of thousands of dollars.
