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.
Mr Foley said many were struggling to get more in again at a reasonable price due to competition.
"There is huge demand and as people are scrambling a lot are bringing it in from other places."
Looking ahead to winter Mr Foley said it was an autumn he couldn't fault.
Feed is looking good and enough has been produced to get farmers through the winter comfortably.
"This is something we would love to see year in year out as the amount of moisture and the warm temperatures are great for us."
Luckily for Bay farmers this weather was only expected to continue as MetService meteorologist April Clark said rain would continue for most of today.
She said a low out to the west of the North Island would sink down, bringing periods of rain.
"As the front moves down there is a thunderstorm risk for the ranges in the afternoon but the rain should clear in the evening."
There is high humidity as temperatures reach the mid-20s with a high of 23 for both Hastings and Napier.
Tomorrow is expected to be a mainly dry but cloudy day with rain not forecast to fall until the evening.
"Tuesday is looking fairly dry with temperatures staying in the mid-20s for most of Hawke's Bay."
Ms Clark said the rest of the week was pretty unclear at this stage but it looked like showers would return on Wednesday.