Farmers pleased with soil moisture

Hawke's Bay Federated Farmers president, Will Foley, is happy with the soil moisture heading in to the summer farming months. Photo / Duncan Brown.

The chance of a drought this summer is looking unlikely, with Niwa predicting little chance of abnormally dry periods.

Niwa forecaster Ben Noll said the long-term forecast predicted the rainfall through to January would be above average or average.

"There is only a 20 per cent chance that the rainfall will be below average when we look through to January," he said.

"The soil right now in Hawke's Bay is very moist."

He said the past two months had brought a lot of rain, with easterly winds coming from the Pacific.

"For this time of the year the soil moisture is normal if not above normal. It has alleviated the dry soil that was in place from last summer."

Hawke's Bay Federated Farmers president Will Foley said his organisation was happy with the amount of moisture in the ground to date, especially in the lead-up to summer.

"We had about an inch of rain at the beginning of the week, so it is keeping the pasture and crops growing and it has not been too wet for sowing crops, either.

"We are not yet concerned about a drought over the summer months, as the long-term forecast predictions do not look too dry."

Mr Foley said farmers were more worried about droughts in autumn as that season had been dry for a few years. With the recent rain and warmer temperatures, they were expecting a good farming season.

Periods of scattered rain are set to continue at the weekend. MetService meteorologist Lisa Murray said there would be wet weather this morning, which should clear later in the day.

"A front moves in overnight, which will bring more scattered rain Saturday morning, but that should move off early.

"As the day progresses, there will just be high cloud around."

She said a southerly was set to move in on Saturday night but would clear by Sunday morning. The rest of the day should be mainly fine, with a high of 22C.