Cows, calves and veterinary

From my e-mail inbox (Federated Farmers): Rain has come too late for some North Island east coast farmers facing winter with little or no stock feed. Cool weather means reasonable grass growth is not expected until September or October. PGG Wrightson, in association with Federated Farmers, will continue taking calls from farmers able to supply or needing feed due to drought conditions. Coordinators at PGG Wrightson are handling a number of small donations of hay and baleage. Processes are being put in place to collect as many as possible but cost effectiveness has meant there are difficulties with freight. The feed coordinators have indicated that there may be the perception that there are large quantities of free feed on offer. This is not the case. The team is still on the look out for hay, baleage and grazing at reasonable prices. People in a position to supply feed can ring 0800 Drought (0800 376 8448). At this point those in need of feed exceed the availability but people in need of feed due to dry conditions can also call 0800 376 8448.

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Support in place - Four agriculture recovery facilitators have been appointed by the East Coast Rural Support Trust to support farmers enduring drought in Hawke’s Bay. Facilitators provide budgeting and cash flow advice, feed budgeting for stock food and are able to put people in contact with other support agencies. The office is based in Hastings and is contactable on 0800 HB Relief (0800 427 354).

I took these shots last week, while driving across country then up and around the East Coast. Not far out of Dannevirke the pastures started looking like a typical dry summer - hard-grazed, with the dung pats sitting on the surface. It fooled me into forgetting for a few moments that a hard frost has just lifted - this is June, not summer.

Not far further on the country was brown, and livestock were few to be seen, and once past Waipawa the hills were bare and the few animals to be seen were in poor condition. A little further on - where I took the shots of the bales - were a few low-lying green paddocks with cattle and sheep very heavily stocked on these areas. My guess is that this is irrigated land rather than saved grass - I saw a single irrigator working a little further on. Condition among these flocks/herds was variable (of the ones close to the roadside). A few looked healthy, others in the same groups were clearly emaciated.

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Overheard at Fieldays: He had 1200 sheep on there, now down to 300 and he still can't feed them.

Most of the stock have been sent out of the area to graze on greener pastures, sold or culled. Rain has fallen - past Hastings the coast areas I drove through looked green, but still very dry. The rain started that night (Sunday) and the papers the next day reported up to 100mm in 24 hours in some areas - a good break to the drought.

For some areas. It continued to drizzle on and off over the next few days, but the rain I encountered was not a large amount. A few heavy showers, periodic drizzle. That was it.

This morning, back in Taranaki, my car is crusted with an inch of frost. East Coast farmers are far from being able to rest easy. Driving into Hastings, sheep were grazing apples next to the orchards. On the flat country cattle are held tight on grass and silage. Horses in small sections are working into grass stubble, and given hay. The few animals left in the area will be reliant on conserved feed for the rest of the winter.

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It was a sobering view.

edit because blogger is still cannily removing all my paragraph spaces before publishing.