Hamilton, Taupo, Te Puke, Rotorua as well as Tauranga, Gisborne, Paraparaumu, Christchurch and Ashburton have all received more rain so far over the past nine months than is typically received across an entire year. MetService data backs this up.
For farmers it has been a constant battle to protect their paddocks from stock trampling – otherwise known as pugging – while others have been fortunate with good pasture growth enabling them to maintain cow condition and keep on top of milk production.
MetService meteorologist Georgina Griffiths says January to September rainfall records were smashed in Waikato and the greater Bay of Plenty region.
«It has also been an extremely wet year-to-date for Auckland.»
In the year so far the 1271 millimetres of rainfall accumulating at Hamilton Airport is the highest January-September tally for records that began in 1935.
The effects of the downpours have ranged widely on dairy farms throughout the region, DairyNZ northern Waikato regional leader Phil Irvine says.
Farms including the Owl Farm demonstration operation near Cambridge have benefited from unseasonable late winter growth. For others, the effects are more severe with wrecked paddocks and cows in less than optimum condition.
Soil types have played a large role in the extent of damage on many farms. If a property has undrained soils and a flat contour, the effects are more severe. Not all farms had escaped unscathed and neither were all of them struggling, he says.
«It’s been a struggle to try and minimise the damage though.»
Irvine says the five Hauraki Plains monitor farms involved in the P3 Dairy Trust are prime example of what many farmers in eastern Waikato have had to battle over the past month.
«The priority has been wet, wet, wet.»
Weekly farmer updates traced the wet weather arriving just as spring was about to bounce away for John and Nikki Garrett’s farm near Ngatea.
The monitor farmers wrote that their potential loss of pasture production through paddock damage is the biggest concern.
Similarly, minimising pasture damage is the main focus on Neil and Glenda Gray’s farm at Turua.
The farm has switched to once a day milking and this, along with utilising their standoff pad, were real «bacon savers» through the wet weather.
Irvine says last year’s balance date on Waikato farms – which is when pasture growth caught up with feed demand – had come this month after being in October last year because it has been such a cold spring.
This earlier date was impacting on the ability of farmers to make use of pasture growth. While the grass was there, cows were damaging the paddocks in getting to it.
«For a lot of farmers, it’s not so much that they haven’t got enough feed,» he says.
This forced many farmers to feed out more supplements than usual at this time of year to compensate for the shortfall. Extra feed comes at an extra cost.
Through a combination of good luck and management, Owl Farm was able to navigate its way through the late winter and early spring despite heavy, persistent rain.
The 171 hectare demonstration farm at St Peter’s School has so far received 250mm more rain for the year. Its gauge sat at 1102mm compared with 843mm last year.
The weather forced demonstration manager Louise Cook and farm manager Tom Buckley to be flexible when it came to pasture management as they tried to protect as many paddocks as possible while at the same time, maintaining milk production and cow condition.
The farm was fortunate to have unseasonal winter pasture growth, which allowed them to maintain good condition on the cows and gave them options around protecting pastures.
They also brought in baleage to feed out in June as an alternative to pasture.
On many wetter paddocks, they left longer pasture «residuals» – the grass cover left after cows graze – to protect them from damage.
Speaking at the farm’s recent focus day, Cook says they had enough feed that they could afford to do that.
«If we didn’t have the cover it would be a different kettle of fish. Because we have the cover, we are choosing to avoid these areas and go elsewhere.»
Cook says their situation is the exception rather than the norm for Waikato farms.
«It’s not all beer and skittles, it’s not all dry, nice and easy like you see on a beautiful sunny day and you see cows in the paddock, but we have cover and we have options and that’s been the story of spring.»
While the herd at Owl Farm was in good condition heading into mating, Irvine says other farmers with lower pasture covers had not managed as well.
This will impact on cow condition, which in turn will affect empty rates for mating. The condition of cows at calving affected their condition at mating, he says.
«There are some thinner herds out there and that will have an effect.»
Okoroire dairy farmer Ben Moore says while their covers had been sufficiently high enough for them to feed their cows, it was wet and grass utilisation was down.
The balance date on the farm was also earlier than last year.
«Pasture growth has been hit and miss, we’ve been up and down like a yo-yo.»
Farming in spring has become a difficult balancing act between taking advantage of good pasture growth on sunny days while trying to protect paddocks from damage during the wet.
Moore says he made use of his in-shed feeding system as well as feeding out palm kernel earlier this spring when it was too wet to put the herd on pastures.
His farm was in a better overall position than at the same time last year. Milk production was 9 per cent up for the year and 5 per cent up for the month of September. He described calving as «exceptional».
«It’s been seemingly very easy.»
He also used a spring rotational planner to help prevent pasture damage and while there was plenty of standing water, it was a manageable situation.
He was also mindful that not every farmer was in this situation. Anecdotally, there were reports of some farmers who were standing their herd off either on feedpads, yards or race and are feeding their cattle large quantities of supplementary feed in an effort to protect pastures for when they dried out.
«Unfortunately, you have to do that to get through.
«Number one is animal health and secondly, milk production but in the back of your mind in one month’s time you’re going to be mating.»
Source: Stuff
Link: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/96724350/a-challenging-wet-spring-for-waikato-dairy-farmers