After plenty of spring and summer rain conditions are awesome.
“Because of the wet spring the crops were a bit late going in but the barley looks promising and the kale and rape we’ve got in for summer feed are outstanding. Every time we’ve needed rain, it’s turned on.”
The excellent ewe condition could provide a challenge in giving them the sought-after autumn lift going into mating.
Most of 2017 and through last year were also favourable and rain has been regular and widespread across North Canterbury while the severe drought of 2013 to 2016 is now a memory though with continuing impacts.
Earl is short of the ideal number of ewes born in 2014 and 2015, that should be in their breeding prime now.
“Normally we would have carried 700 to 800 replacements but because of the drought we did only 350 to 400 at that time and that’s leaving us short and that might be the case through North Canterbury.
“We’ve got plenty of hoggets and two-tooths and ewe lambs so that will sort itself out over time.”
He thinks high livestock prices might be slowing the rebuilding of sheep and cattle numbers.
There’s been a lot of hay and silage made over the summer though hay has been a challenge in getting the cutting and drying done before the next spell of rain. There will be plenty of supplementary feed on hand if there is a dry late summer and autumn and for winter.
Earl is topping some pasture as it gets too high, adding up to more quantity than quality though he’s focusing on getting sheep and cattle to keep it to good levels.
Drought is never far away in North Canterbury and he says that now through the latest severe dry years it will be good to have a couple of good years before the next one sets in.
On the North Canterbury coast at Motunau, long-time farmer David Meares said no-one he had talked to could remember a season like this.
“We’ve not had a growthy season like this one. It just keeps growing. It’s been astonishing.’’
Meares destocked in the drought years and is still relatively understocked with some grass is going to waste.
“You couldn’t have stocked up for a year like this.”
Cattle and ewes are doing very well in the conditions but, ironically, many farmers have struggled to finish lambs to good weights. Lambs do better in drier conditions and can do well on the verge of drought, he said.
There are a couple of issues to watch with fire risk if the long grass dries out during later summer and autumn and the possibility of later spring growth if the grass that is eaten down breaks down into a mulch on paddocks over the winter.
Marlborough has also had good rain and pasture growth, leaving sheep and cattle in excellent condition, the area’s Federated Farmers chairman Philip Neal said.
“They’re almost doing too well.”
The area can get very dry in hot summer winds and plenty of hay and silage has been taken in for supplementary feed later though, as in Canterbury, the consistent rain has caused issues in drying time before baling.
“Traditionally, farmers have made sure they’ve got two years supply of hay in the shed and that will be the case this year.”
A potential problem is fire risk as the high growth dries off. Farmers have learned the risk of this over the years and there are regular meetings with Civil Defence to organise handling problems.
