Rain today and tomorrow is good news for farmers - but not so good for holidaymakers. MetService has forecast light showers this afternoon with more persistent and heavier rain for tomorrow. This may not be what holidaymakers want but it is great news for farmers. Derek Spratt, a Pukehina dairy farmer andchairman of the Bay of Plenty Rural Support Trust, said a decent amount of rain would be welcome. A little rain in recent days had helped give dry pastures a "green tinge - which is a big improvement" but had not been enough. Mr Spratt said farmers still needed to be careful because February was likely to be a dry month. He said the Western Bay was doing better than Eastern Bay, but rainfall over the past few days had not been enough. However, heavy rain would simply mean dry grass would rot and have no feeding value. Heavy rain also promoted high humidity which increased the possibility of animals contracting facial eczema. Dry weather has forced many dairy farmers to reduce milkings and use supplementary feed as pastures turned brown. Mr Spratt's cows had been milked every 16 hours instead of every eight, since December 1. "The last time we went to 16 hour milkings was two years ago and that was in February." Mr Spratt said many other Bay farmers were milking once a day, affecting their milk production and consequently incomes.
