Crop yields have been affected by the very wet spring and lack of sunshine meaning a large chunk of harvest has come in below expectation.
Federated Farmers grains vice-chairman Brian Leadley said while farmers are happy with the ideal harvesting conditions, crop yields have been variable.
“Certainly yields have not been as expected. The rain was really good in spring but without the sunshine when it was needed, it’s taken its toll with crops just not yielding as good as they looked.
“Both the rain and lack of sunshine also created high disease loadings that have been difficult to keep on top of and that’s also reduced yields.”
Grain yields appear to be down on average 20% with some reports of barley down as much as 50% with peas also hard hit.
“On the whole we are not talking disastrous but below average.”
Leadley said farmers are generally pleased with the lift in values, particularly in grains.
After the past couple of years they were looking for better returns to balance the increase in inputs needed.
Feed barley is generally selling from $360-$380 a tonne and feed wheat $380-$400.
“But there’s a lot of variables around pricing depending on delivery, storage, freight and for some farmers it’s money straight off the header if they sell from the paddock so there’s no cost in storage.
“The talk is grasses will be slightly up but that won’t be determined until the later harvest of these is complete and then it becomes a demand versus supply.”
Meanwhile, a return to pea production is on the horizon for Wairarapa growers with confirmation no weevils were detected from the 25 trap crops planted in the 2018-19 season.
“This is great news for growers, who took a big financial hit to eradicate this insect pest from New Zealand,” Feds arable chairwoman Karen Williams said.
The pea weevil governance group will meet at the end of March to decide on future response options.
“I hope to have a robust discussion with the governance group about whether a partial lifting of the controlled area notice may be practical or whether a further 12 months’ full regional ban is necessary to properly secure area freedom from pea weevil in the Wairarapa,” Williams said.
MPI figures show NZ produced 60,000 tonnes of peas in 2016, earning $50 million in domestic sales and $80m in exports.
Wairarapa was responsible for about 10% of the output before the pea-growing moratorium imposed when weevils were found in Wairarapa in April 2016.
