Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Northland soils are extremely wet so dairy farmers are continuing to stand cows off pastures where possible. A farm consultant says he hasn't seen damaged pastures when he's driving around so farmers obivously are conscious of protecting soils.
In Pukekohe, last week's cool fine weather was too good to last, this week it was changeable with 17 millimetres of rain falling. Growers rushed to sow as much of their main crop onion seed as possible before the rain arrived. Greenhouse tomato growers are struggling to get enough labour, although it's improved a little with more working tourists coming in. New plant virus diseases have appeared and reduced yields so it's a tough time.
Waikato, Bay of Plenty, King Country and Taranaki have all had a similar week weatherwise... snappy cold with some frosts at the start, then a mix of sun and cloud. Daffodils are appearing in Waikato, just as we've passed the shortest day. In King Country ewe scanning results are mixed, from an exceptional 200-plus percentage to 10 percent back on past years.
Photo: Susan Murray
Bay of Plenty farmers were thrilled to see more sun. In the past 32 days our farmer contact there had 480 milimetres of rain. His early scanned ewe results are similar to last year, but ones mated after mid March are down about 10 percent. Mt Taranaki has a good covering of snow but pasture growth in the province is still okay for winter
Across the island to the East Coast and Gisborne puddles up quickly after only 10 millimetres of rain. It's relatively warm for this time of year and feed levels and stock condition are both good.
Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa also had some frosts earlier this week. Farmers are hunkering with stock generally in tip top condition. In Wairarapa there were good ewe scanning results and the early lambers will be starting in a couple of weeks... with the main drop in September.
After an awful start to June for Manawatū and Horowhenua this past week has been drier and milder. Our Manawatū farm consultant contact says farmers are feeling pretty positive. Cows are in good condition and ewes are fat. Horowhenua pastures covers on dairy farms are a little lower than ideal and feed gaps are being filled with palm kernal.
Photo: Judy Mellsop
Across Cook Strait, apple pruning is in full swing in the Nelson/Motueka region. The grower we talked too has a team of Kiwi's and RSE workers from Tonga up the ladders. Pruning continues in Marlborough's vineyards too and the weather's been okay, with just one day of rain this week. On farm, people are busy break feeding sheep and cattle.
A wet June in Canterbury is making a bit of mud when winter feeding stock. However, in between rain there's been good drying winds, allowing some early spring sown cereals to be planted. Farmers are fixing fences, planting trees and on rainy days, repairing machinery. Farm input prices and availability is a real concern, with some inputs such as fertiliser and diesel doubling in price in the last 12 months.
A dairy farmer at Whataroa on the West Coast says heavy rain on Thursday night was not needed as the ground was already saturated. She says half her cows are away on a run off, while the other half are on the home farm eating grass and crops.
Central Otago farmers are shifting breaks and feeding out stock. Some blade shearing is underway on half-bred sheep. Ice on the Idabum Dam is about 40 millimetres thick, down from 70 earlier in the week. A local farmer says for ice-curling, it needs to be at least 100 millimetres thick before he can hop on and throw the stone.
After some welcomed frosts last week the rain's returned, says our contact at Edendale in Southland He's been doing maintenance work and making sure his staff take a holiday before calving and milking starts up in August. 1000 of his cows are on a mixture of grass, baleage, kale, fodder beet and swedes, 600 are in a wintering shed and 400 are grazing off farm over winter.
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
