Clutha-Southland National Party MP Hamish Walker has called on Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor to make a drought declaration for the Clutha area in south Otago.
“The situation has snuck up on farmers in Clutha and is getting worse.
The Teviot valley around Roxburgh in Central Otago is also extremely dry while normally summer-dry areas of the province such as Maniototo and North Otago have had an excellent season.
Farmers are offloading surplus stock, some are feeding out supplementary feed and others are looking to send stock to grazing.
March was the hottest month in south Otago since 1909, which followed a hot February with next to no rain. Balclutha had 17mm or just 29% of its normal March rain.
The federation’s Otago meat and wool chairman Simon McAtamney said soil temperatures are still warm and some fine weather could still see some late autumn growth.
Covers are very low and the prolonged dry spell has taken the gloss off what many farmers were picking to be a profitable year.
Adding to their concerns is the light condition of ewes heading into tupping, which will affect the spring lamb crop.
While some farmers are feeding out supplements McAtamney has unloaded tradeable stock.
Federated Farmers is assessing the availability of grazing in Southland and advising farmers to do a winter feed budget.
McAtamney says while some farmers are looking for places to graze stock, parts of Southland are also dry.
“It’s a matter of finding it.”
The federation’s Southland meat and fibre chairwoman Bernadette Hunt says parts of the province are also dry and some have just been hanging on with barely enough rain.
Her eastern Southland farm had 34mm of rain on Wednesday and northern Southland also had more than 30mm.
“We’ve had just enough moisture but we had a good fall overnight.
“It’s pretty patchy across Southland.”
