Some gain with no RAIN

If dairy, sheep and cattle farmers are looking towards heaven and praying anxiously for rain there are others in the Far North who prefer the sky to remain azure blue because no rain for them means gain.

By Sandy Myhre.

Citrus fruit love the dry. National Citrus Manager for Kerifresh, Lloyd Foss, says it's perfect growing weather and because it hasn't rained, they have fewer issues with fungus. Besides which, they irrigate so they can control the amount of water they give the trees.

It's good news for backyard fruit growers too. Citrus and other fruit will be sweeter than last year even if the acid levels are higher and right about now garden peaches are ripe and very plump. And wine growers are grinning so long as it doesn't substantially rain before mid-March. Rod McIvor from Marsden Estate says conditions have been near perfect.

"The weather's been exceptional and we'd like it to stay like that. Pinot Gris grapes are susceptible to rain and it doesn't look like we'll get any, it seems to threaten from the east and then move away."

He said 2010 was a once-in-thirty-year phenomenon with record low rainfall and this year is shaping up as another of those. For the winegrowers of the Far North and other areas like Gisborne and Marlborough it could mean the vintage - both white and red - will this year be superb.

Dairy farmers were happy by Christmas time but the December rain that brought the joy also heralded a false sense of security. The grass has dried significantly with moisture levels varying between 'extreme' and 'severe' and in some areas it's too low to measure. Milk production levels are down around 18 per cent over February last year even if overall the season from June to March is fractionally ahead.

For sheep and beef farmers it seems to be either a feast or a famine. They can't buy in feed because the return would make it impractical so they're opting for stock reduction. Furthermore, Gareth Baynham from Ag First says mating may be affected too.

"The ewes can't put on weight so that may change lamb percentage numbers later in the year," he says.

Cattle still have full tummies right now but even if we do get rain, and soon, the dead grass will rot and that isn't ideal feed. Cattle farmers can destock as well but the big dry will inevitably have a financial impact later in the year.

So even if the whole of the North Island experienced the driest January in a century and there are nerves from our largest agricultural sector, no rain means others are benefiting while the sun continues to shine.