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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – January 17, 2022
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Farmers make hay while sun shines Staff reporter LAST month’s rain has meant farmers in most parts of the country welcomed the new year with a good supply of feed, although while some areas are quickly drying out, others could do with more sun. In Waikato, December rain enabled pastures to maintain growth into the early part of January. It had now turned hot and dry and dairy farmers were starting to extend their rounds and bring in supplementary feed into the herd’s diets, DairyNZ North Island head Rob Brazendale said. “It’s a wee bit drier than normal, but not exceedingly so,” Brazendale said. Pragmatic farmers were now making decisions around their summer management. “I suspect most farmers will try to keep as many cows in-milk as possible to try to make the most of the high milk price,” he said. Farmers will also be mindful of heat stress in their stock after the hot temperatures of the past few weeks. Their minds will also be turning to facial eczema management as summer turns to autumn. At Owl farm in Cambridge, demonstration manager Jo Sheridan said managing heat stress among the dairy herd was their most pressing challenge. “The last few weeks have been two degrees hotter than last year and while we have had a bit of a reprieve this week, we’re expecting another few hot weeks and the cows are really struggling in the heat,” Sheridan said. Staff have been providing the cows shade wherever possible and using sprinklers to provide relief for the animals during milking. Whereas previously the farm was looking “quite green”, Sheridan said the writing was on the wall as soil moisture levels rapidly began to fall away in the summer heat.
BONUS: Favourable weather has led to a lot of supplementary feed being made around the Manawatū-Rangitīkei area.
Much of the feed we are conserving will be poor quality because of delays in conserving it. Murray Holdaway Federated Farmers
It’s a similar situation in Hawke’s Bay, with the region quickly drying out after good rain at the beginning and the end of December. Federated Farmers Hawke’s Bay president Jim Galloway says that could change depending on the
impact of Tropical Cyclone Cody. “If we get a good dumping from that it could set things up again,” Galloway said. WeatherWatch head forecaster Philip Duncan says the cyclone was expected to arrive on Sunday night, with rain in Coromandel forecast to spread across Bay of Plenty, East Cape, Hawke’s Bay and down into Wairarapa on Monday. Federated Farmers ManawatūRangitīkei president Murray Holdaway says the area is greener than it usually is at this time of year but it’s drying out rapidly. He says it’s been a good growing season, with farmers making the most of a lot of surplus feed, although a shortage of quality staff has hindered that. “The issue from a farmer
perspective is that much of the feed we are conserving will be poor quality because of delays in conserving it,” Holdaway said. AgFirst Manawatū-Whanganui consultant Erica van Reenen says contractors are run off their feet making supplements, however, pasture growth rates have dropped quite a bit in the last week or so. She says there is still some damage in parts of the region from last month’s flooding, but warm weather since then has meant it dried out pretty quickly. Wet weather in the second half of November and through December meant not a lot of irrigation was needed in Canterbury during that time. Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers president David Clark
says that helped kick growth into gear after cold, dry conditions earlier in spring. “There’s a fair bit of grass around now, so things have sort of caught up and there’s been quite a bit of silage made,” Clark said. He says from an arable crop point of view, flowering crops like white clovers desperately need sunshine. “Especially up country, a lack of sunshine hours, a lack of heat, has been a problem,” he said. “Potentially three weeks ago there was a very good harvest ahead of us, but I think the edge has been taken off that now. “There’s still potential for quite a good arable harvest, but we also equally need some heat from now on. “Canterbury tends to run six-week weather cycles and I’m working on the theory that we’ve had six weeks of wettish weather, so we could well go into six weeks of hot and dry, and if that’s what happens that will be awesome.” Further south, summer pasture growth for most of Otago and Southland is proving to be one out of the box. Farm consultant Deane Carson of Agri Business Ltd says most of Southland is looking pretty favourable, which is reflected in the quality of stock. This has been helpful given some farmers still had cull ewes to kill. He says most of Southland has had regular rain, but areas in the northern part of the province could do with some. It is a similar story in the Otago high country, where the province’s Federated Farmers high country section chair Andrew Paterson describes the conditions as comparable to some of the better seasons. “Everyone has filled their silage pits and haybarns,” Paterson said. But the growthy season has compromised pasture quality and stock are not doing as well as desired.
Good weather favours processors A LARGELY favourable summer is enabling meat companies to cope with stock flows. Silver Fern Farms supply chain manager Dan Boulton said it is fortunate feed covers in general have been favourable, which has helped take pressure off any processing delays caused by labour shortages. The processor is watching the
We are encourag-ing farmers to send in their livestock as soon as they are at an optimal weight and condition. Danny Hailes Alliance Group
impact of recent warmth on feed levels potentially leading to pressure to move animals off-farm. “This season we are seeing a relatively late kill profile and we are conscious that any major dry period from this point on, coupled with our labour-related capacity reductions, will create significant challenges onfarm for some,” Boulton said. Alliance Group manager of livestock and shareholder services Danny Hailes said the company is not yet seeing any extreme dry conditions. “We are encouraging farmers to send in their livestock as soon as they are at an optimal weight and condition so we can meet our important Easter chilled lamb programme requirements for the UK and Europe, where we can capture greater value for the co-operative,” Hailes said.
MONITORING: Processors are keeping a watchful eye on the possible impact of recent warmth on feed levels potentially leading to pressure to move animals off-farm.
