The rainy but warm weather is giving farmers an autumn they would have only dreamed of a couple of months ago.
According to Hawke's Bay Federated Farmers president Will Foley this is the best autumn farmers across the region have experienced for a long time, setting them up for a good winter.
"We haven't seen an autumn like this in a while where we have plenty of moisture fuelling grass growth.
"It is unusual considering where we were before as we now have a lot of feed and not enough stock."
During the long dry summer farmers got rid of a lot of stock so now they were rushing to buy more, pushing up the market price.