From Karamea in the north to Franz Josef in the south, the sun seldom appeared through spring and summer and DairyNZ senior consulting officer Ross Bishop said the wet conditions had been unrelenting.
"The overwhelming sentiment is they just want to see the back of it.
“It's one of the wettest seasons farmers have experienced for 20 years at least."
In some areas it had been wet since the end of May, especially through the pre-calving period, with no chance for the ground to dry out since then.
Winter crops were planted late because the ground was too wet then farmers were forced to plant alternative crops that yielded less and they were now struggling to get going, he said.
Many did not get the chance to harvest supplements and low returns meant there were fewer opportunities to remedy the situation.
"The proactive ones are getting in and making early decisions because the longer you hold off making a decision, the fewer options you have."
It was a similar situation to drought and farmers needed to look at shorter lactations, grazing off and buying in supplements as options.
It was a depressing time for farmers and they needed to look after themselves, staff and neighbours and spend time off the farm to relieve the stress.
FarmWise consultant Simon Pontin said the weather had created a gloomy picture for West Coast dairy farmers who were financially stretched already and coping with a summer that was more like winter.
Most crops would reach only about 30% of their expected yield while heavier rain had caused 11 floods on a Karamea farm since the beginning of December.
As well as drying cows off earlier and culling cows, some farmers might have to consider reducing capital stock if they could not borrow more money or extend their credit to buy in extra supplement.
"The coast is tight on money at the moment and every dollar counts but if they try to milk right through, they're going to run out of feed."
Westland Milk Products’ payout was expected to be at least $1/kg milksolids behind Fonterra this season and farmers might receive little money through winter while facing the extra costs of unbudgeted supplements or grazing stock off farm.
Phonse Carroll farmed near Whataroa in the southern reaches of the region where rainfall was measured in metres and his farm recorded 5m of rain during a 12-month period, up from his usual 3.5m, with no relief through January and February.
But that was less than some farmers in his area who recorded 6m.
"The lack of sun has been the killer.
“We haven't had the sunlight so the ground hasn't had a chance to dry out and a lot of crops have failed.
“Supplements will definitely be in short supply and winter crops will be lighter so it's a case of importing feed.
“If you budgeted on having a good amount of crop and don't have it, it's going to be a huge expense.
"Over the past six to eight years there's been some fairly low times so farmers have got pretty resilient. But there's only so many days without sunlight you can cope with."
Westland’s milk supply manager Taane Johnsen said the wet weather was demoralising for farmers and had knocked 7% out of production for the season so far compared with last season, with quite a few farmers down 10%.
"Farmers are having to make some hard decisions and they're being pushed into them to try to set up for next season," he said.
"To say the season has been challenging is an understatement and farmers have done an exceptional job with coping – just being able to keep farming through these conditions."
