Friday, March 29, 2024

Rain severely cuts crop planting

Avatar photo
Waterlogged South Canterbury farmland will lie idle over winter as farmers wait for spring opportunities to plant crops.
The 2022 Global Agricultural Productivity report flags the steep decline in productivity in the sector – and its implications for food security.
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Twice the normal rainfall in March followed by four times the normal rainfall in April left farmers battling with sodden ground and unable to meet autumn planting commitments.

South Canterbury Federated Farmers arable industry chairman Michael Porter said to date only about 50% of farmers had managed to get the crops they planned into the ground.

Of those, 90% didn’t expect to get all their autumn plantings in before cut off at the end of May.

In the worst-affected areas cropping farmers expected to get just10% of their planned crops into the ground.

It was mid-May so realistically farmers were not expecting a lot to change in a couple of weeks. That meant there would be a large area of cropping land sitting idle over winter, Porter said.

While some crops, in particular oil seed rape, were in the ground they were planted late with no certainty they would come to anything.

“The slugs are running rampant so while 50% is in the ground a lot of that drilling was done in less than ideal planting conditions so they are very vulnerable.

“Whether they come to anything worthwhile, time will tell.”

Porter said there was a drilling window where seed companies and farmers would need to call it day, in many cases that had happened over the past week.

That meant croppers had been forced to let go the higher-value proprietary contracts and resign themselves to planting commodity value, small seeds, grasses and grains.

“Personally, I have been able to only get about 25% of what I planned in the ground.

“I have had to pull the pin on brassicas. I have another week on grasses but it’s looking like all the higher-value contracts are gone now.

“I spent years building relationships with seed companies to secure seed multiplication contracts and it comes to this but it’s out of our control.”

It now came down to what Mother Nature dealt up for spring.

“Spring wheat for us is only treading water. We don’t make money but if we have to put two-thirds of the farm in barley then we will have to look at spring wheat.”

Porter said there was one positive from the very wet autumn.

“At the end of the day all is not lost because we have got good, meaningful subsoil moisture recharge that we haven’t had for two years so when we get something in the ground we are all set to go for good growth.”

Mid Canterbury cropping farmers had battled with sodden ground but they hadn’t fared so badly as their southern counterparts, arable industry vice chairman Brian Leadley said.

There would be farmers getting less in the ground than they planned and for many spring cereal crops would become the option.

While frustrating and disappointing for farmers that would also affect the wider industry with what would be available on the arable scene come next season.

“There are a few more arable farmers thinking yield drops next year because of the later planting and there will be a swing from wheat to barley and feed wheat to milling wheat as farmers take what best options will be available to fill the void come spring,” Leadley said.

That would limit the variety of crops and volumes available.

“Farmers will look pretty hard at what options will be out there over grain and this could be spring pea and vegetable options but there will be more risk with these crops.

“It really will be up to what individual farmers can see their way clear to do and so there will be uncertainty until we see what can happen come spring,” Leadley said.

Meantime, the latest agricultural production statistics showed farmers produced more than a million tonnes of wheat, barley and maize grain from 120,000 hectares in the 2016 harvest.

In a separate report issued by the Ministry for Primary Industries it was estimated the staple crops of wheat, barley and maize contributed more than $1.5 billion to the economy every year – barley at $334m, wheat $468m and maize $722m.

The latest Arable Industry Marketing Initiative (AIMI) cereals survey painted a positive picture of the grain industry with lower carry-over stocks and less unsold grain compared to this time last year.

Total
0
Shares
People are also reading