Jacqui Anderson, who with husband Wayne has farms at Waipukurau in Central Hawke’s Bay and Maraekakaho, west of Hastings, says the extended drought followed by plenty of rain over the past month has affected each property differently.
They couple have farmed at Waipukurau for 20 years, mainly trading bulls, and put plans in place early. They did a feed budget last year knowing the number of bulls they were likely to carry over winter so bought balage when it wasn’t too hard to get.
Anderson says that was not possible at Maraekakaho, a deer farm they took possession of in March.
It meant they could not make decisions early enough and suffered badly for it. Not being able to destock or wean before the sale settlement had a drastic effect.
So they had a significant feed deficit requiring applications to drought relief funds while also buying in a lot of balage, hay, palm kernel and maize.
Rain over the past month has created a new set of problems.
The Waipukurau farm, with its clay soil, has become very muddy, especially as there was very little grass cover to begin with.
The red metal soils at Maraekakaho have good drainage so mud is not a problem. Though the property looks green, with rain complemented by relatively warm temperatures, grass is very short so supplements continue to be relied on.
Having the second farm means they could recently shift 32 steers to lighten the load at Waipukurau, where it is getting wetter, to Maraekakaho to get them ready for the spring/summer market.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council principal air scientist Dr Kathleen Kozyniak said the Kaweka and Ruahine Ranges got up to 270mm in the past week and the Tangoio area, between Napier and Tutira, had more than 100mm. The Heretaunga and Ruataniwha Plains had some of the lower totals, mostly about 15-40mm.
The region has had about 73% of normal July rain but its spread across the region is variable with the Ruataniwha Plains sitting at 46% of the July average compared to 107% at Tangoio.
Soil moisture is sitting at or above median levels for the time of year at most sites. Bridge Pa has again snuck into the top 10% of readings. Soil temperatures increased over the week, ranging from 11C at lowland sites to 8C at higher elevations.
Callum Sherwood, who farms at Sherenden, about 40km inland from Napier, got about 80mm of rain last week, which following steady falls for the past month. His ground is at just about capacity.
It’s a welcome change from earlier in the year, which anecdotally was drier than any other time in living memory. Records from some farms going back to the 1920s and 1930s show this year was drier than anyone had seen.
Sherwood says he has only about a third of the cattle he would normally have on the farm, having got rid of stock earlier when it was obvious feed was going to be in short supply. He sold 400 lambs a week before yards were shut bu covid.
With stock numbers right down and plenty of rain in recent weeks the outlook for spring is more promising that it had been though he’s been relying on supplementary feed for a while.
It will also take a while to rebuild stock numbers.
Hawke’s Bay Rural Advisory Group co-chairman Lochie MacGillivray says most farmers have managed to farm through the tough conditions though some are still in a fragile situation and an increase in grass growth is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.
He advises farmers to delay set stocking for as long as possible to allow covers to build up.
It’s important to start thinking about next year’s income and farmers who were forced to destock could consider rearing calves as a way of restocking.
It’s been an exhausting time for many farmers in the region and tiredness coupled with what can be treacherous weather conditions can lead to accidents so he is urging farmers and farm staff to take extra.
Applications to the Hawke’s Bay mayoral drought fund have been coming in at about $25,000 a week, which is less than expected.
If that keeps up there will likely be money left over, which was not what the fund was set up for.
Consideration is now being given to increasing access to the money. That might include adjusting the start date for applications. The fund was set up on May 19 and only invoices dated after that are eligible. It could also mean a change to the maximum amount farmers can get. The maximum big farms can get is $1350.
MacGillivray says those farmers might have spent $100,000 feeding stock so can’t be bothered applying for help when what they can get is proportionally tiny.
“So maybe we look at the threshold. But we haven’t made these calls yet.”
