Photo: Susan Murray
The cold hit with a vengeance in Northland this week. Our contact says there was a slight frost on Wednesday but it's very, very wet and he is having to stand stock off paddocks and feed out silage to save pasture. The damp will be trying for those without much in the way of reserves to feed out.
Around Pukekohe, it's been wet and growers have struggled with outdoor lettuce crops.
Waikato is very cold and getting some good winter frosts which is slowing down pasture growth. With their herds dried off, seasonal supply dairy farmers are doing winter maintenance, things like fixing races. Cow condition is just average heading into the new season because of the earlier drought which has well and truly broken.
A Bay of Plenty farmer had to put his winter woollies on this week. He says a couple of frosts and some sun have been welcomed as things are starting to dry out. He's been chipping away at riparian planting around waterways and says dairy farmers are quite buoyant despite rising input costs eating into profit. They're wanting to pay back debt but some are finding it difficult to meet bank targets and are paying back at a reduced rate.
King Country has had a run of hard frosts down to minus four degrees but our contact says most aren't concerned. The frosts clean up the bugs. They would normally have had a few more by this time of year and it's the warmest winter he's ever known. Pastures are still struggling after the dry autumn. A consultant says it'll catch up on farmers come lambing and calving from September if they haven't made decisions on things like fertiliser before then.
Photo: Susan Murray
A farmer on the East Coast has just finished pregnancy scanning ewes. Rates have been exceptional - 210 to 215 percent at the top end. Other farms are still in full swing with their scanning. Some of the very early flocks are starting to lamb. Getting cattle killed is still a problem. They might be all booked in to the works and then delayed for up to two weeks. It's frustrating although it's good prices are holding up. It's been wet and cold here too.
Hawke's Bay orchardists have welcomed the winter chill this week - needed for bud break in the spring. Minds are focusing now on the future and whether all their blocks have a sustainable one given ongoing challenges. Decisions will be being made now on what needs to stay and what could go. Pruning is well underway with the help of some RSE workers who were here for picking then trained up to prune because they were forced to stay on longer because of the pandemic.
A Manawatū farmer says it's been challenging to say the least with all the rain this month - slips, high creeks and lots of water lying around. He was pleased to see the sun when we called.
A dairy farmer in Horowhenua says winter milking is going well and the premium for the milk offsets the extra costs of milking year round. On other dairy farms artificial breeding is getting underway. The dry week has been a boost for farmers and market gardeners who are in the middle of planting strawberries and harvesting broccoli.
Wairarapa's been glowing in the crisp winter sun this week. After some amazing autumnal growth our contact says some of his better paddocks are still growing 12 to 14 kilograms of dry matter per hectare. Taking down and putting up break fences is a daily chore on most stock farms. Sheep scanning is in full swing and good results are coming out across the region.
Photo: 123RF
And across Cook Strait, chilly mornings in the Nelson Region have been great for pruning, but an orchardist near Richmond says it's been tough on the hands despite wearing gloves. He's pruning a pear block this week and training up new staff. Finding reliable younger staff is the biggest issue he has this winter. Older, retirement aged people have put their hands up to work, but he's not that keen on sending them up to the top trees on ladders. In other larger apple orchards he says people have started preparing the ground for new apple varieties.
Weaner calves and prime steers had a long journey this week from a farm at the top of the Marlborough Sounds. The road's still not safe after flooding and slips last July so two truck and trailer units had to be barged in to the Kenepuru Sounds and then drove to Titirangi Bay to pick up the cattle. It was 1.30 in the morning before they were unloaded for an overnight stop at cattle yards in the Sounds - the local farmer had waited up for them and prepared a meal for the exhausted drivers. That morning the cattle were loaded up again to meet the barge to Havelock and then on to Canterbury by road ... what a mission!
A farmer near Fox Glacier on the West Coast says a week of hard frosts have dried the ground out after a heap of rain earlier in the month. He's been busy feeding out and moving break fences where cows are on turnips. He says there's a lot of snow on the mountains behind the farm but none yet has fallen on the flats.
Photo: Michael Godfrey
After a fair amount of rain last week in North Canterbury, this week's icy mornings and sunny days have been welcomed by all. Ewe scanning results are coming in and dry rates are quite high in the region, up to 20 percent on some farms. A good result would be under five percent. A Pyramid Valley farmer reckons it could be due to a lot of dead matter found in longer pastures that the sheep were eating. Apart from that, winter farming is going well with sheep happy eating fodder beet and running on the hill blocks that need to be eaten down.
In Otago, a Taeri plains dairy farmer says frost hardened paddocks have made it easy to feed out. This week he's also been doing maintenance work and has vaccinated the cows for Leptospirosis, a disease caused by bacteria that can cause mastitis and a drop in milk production, and pink eye, which if not treated, can result in temporary or permanent blindness. Over the winter his herd are on a diet of grass and baleage. He no longer grows winter crops as a consent is required. He's says he's also looking at reducing cow numbers to meet emissions obligations.
Photo: Michael Godfrey
Everyone's fully into winter mode in Southland. Cows on dairy farms have settled on winter crops while sheep are break feeding on grass and getting a top up of sheep nuts or oats. A lot of baleage, straw and hay is being fed out too. Apart from on dairy run-off properties, it's a quiet time so people have been fixing fences and repairing lane-ways. Our contact says the biggest issue for dairy farmers at the moment is uncertainty around the draft code of welfare for dairy cattle. She says consultation fatigue is really starting to effect people's wellbeing.
