While the rest of the country complains about too much rain over the holiday period, in the south it's just the opposite.
An ironic change in weather patterns has seen Southland and Otago farmers selling stock to Canterbury to finish, a reverse of the norm.
Regional dry area droughts have in the past caused little economic impact other than to the region affected, as stock are regularly moved to areas of feed for finishing.
What must be of concern is the unirrigated freshly converted dairy farms of the south and what this dry spell will be doing to production.
Dairy NZ is running 7 workshops in areas of Southland and South Otago to upskill dairy farmers on milking with a drought. A number of farmers have moved to once a day milking or every 16 hours, as they adapt to lower covers.
It has been reported that there is a shortage of supplementary feed in the region, which is ironic as many farmers further north just want a period of fine days to get it off the paddock!
And the weather pattern that started in late November is predicted by Met service to continue for a while yet. A moderate la Nina weather pattern will bring below normal rain and extended dry periods to Southland right through to February.
Establishing and growing winter feed will be challenging for a province that can often suffer from harsh winter conditions.
Farmers in some parts of Otago are starting to feel the "bite" from dry conditions after parts of the region were among the driest in the country last month, Otago Federated Farmers president Michael Lord said.
This comes as Niwa confirmed Otago and Southland were the regions with the lowest rainfall in the country last month, with Dunedin having its driest December since records began at the Musselburgh site in 1918 reports The ODT.
Mr Lord, who has a dairy farm on the Taieri, said the dry weather in Otago was "definitely starting to bite", particularly for farmers closer to the coast near Dunedin and in the Taieri. Central Otago and North Otago farmers were less affected after going through a relatively wet spring, and there farming systems were geared to dry periods.
Farmers are putting dry-weather action plans in place and selling lambs to Canterbury as the southern sun stunts grass growth reports The Southland Times. Lumsden beef and sheep farmer Glen Mitchell said he was sending 1000 lambs to stores today – 25 per cent of his lamb stock. It was the first time he had sold store lambs.
Mr Mitchell was also killing lambs down to 37kg live weight. Rural livestock Southland stock agent Paul Mavor said Mr Mitchell's lambs were Canterbury-bound."The market has come back. We are [now] selling at $3.50 a kilogram, rather than a bit over $3.80 a kilogram before Christmas," he said.
Owaka PGG Wrightson stock agent Peter Grellet said farmers were selling a sixth of their lambs. "Everything's got to go to Canterbury. There's no feed, so everything is heading north.PGG Wrightson Southland stock agent Andrew Martin said Southland usually took lambs from Canterbury rather than sending them away.
Alliance group chief executive Grant Cuff said lambs, and the resulting profits, were traditionally sent south, but the dry meant the opposite would happen. "We usually have a more consistent rain flow [than Canterbury]," he said. "It will shift some income between provinces."
8 Comments
Was just reading this:
http://sciblogs.co.nz/hot-topic/2012/01/11/hansen-extreme-heat-the-new-normal/
Franz Joseph is/was having water supply problems.
Nothing like a drought seminar to get the skys to open. Its pouring down here at the moment which is badly needed. No rain of any note since late November just day after day of hot dry conditions.Certainly no complaints from the towny holiday makers down here this year.
Feed crops and young grass paddocks are half struck and struggling and stock water schemes have been struggling to keep up demand as natural water sources have diminished substantially. Store lambs have been pouring out of the south with the availability of trucks an issue. Normally they would be pouring into Southland at this time. I guess every dog has their day.
Hey SS, hope you share someof that rain with us southern coastal cousins! ;-)
Aj, son working at St Moritz says that they have only just opened all their run/lifts etc. He said there is concern for the horse racing that takes place there in January on the frozen lake - at the moment it isn't frozen!
Shags sheep, I just send a draft of lambs away and the driver is then heading to some place called Middlemarch to dring a unit of lambs back. (block you ears PDK). Sounds like all the North island farmers are lining up to pick the carcass clean, hope you can sneak through ok. If its any help, after numerous droughts I think grazing is the best and most hassle free option, leave them there till you get some feed. Its has worked best for me every time and cheapest too, as the animals come back in better nick and i get to save some feed.
Thanks for the advice Aj, I have had the same philosophy during previous dry spells. Thankfully its absolutely bucketing down again now and the prospect of a good sth easterly over the next couple of days could be a godsend. Hopefully CO is getting plenty way down south, most unusual for it to be dry there.
As the article above alludes, this will be a big hit for Alliance. With most of their capacity down here and coming off the back of last years storm affected season. Silver fern and CMP will be creaming it.
lanning for Easterly Activities for entire stemma are not as loose as it seems , especially if you change a significant line with antithetical interests easter status and ages.
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