Drought: Groundwater and dams used for livestock run dry on some North Island farms

Drought was declared in the Northland, Waikato, Horizons and Marlborough-Tasman regions last week, extending the earlier Taranaki declaration. Photo / RNZ, Simon Rogers

By Gianina Schwanecke of RNZ

Drought conditions across most western and central areas of the North Island have caused some farms’ groundwater and dams used for livestock to run dry.

It comes as drought was declared in the Northland, Waikato, Horizons, and Marlborough-Tasman regions last week, extending the earlier Taranaki declaration.

Agriculture Minister Todd McClay classified the conditions as a medium-scale adverse event, with the declaration opening up funding support and tax relief for farmers and growers.

Federated Farmers Northland president Colin Hannah said the declaration came sooner than expected but was welcome news as some farms had run out of groundwater meaning they have none easily available for their stock.

“I think that’s what triggered it more than anything because everybody seems to have feed, either stored feed or dry grass, but water seems to be the major problem.

“In Wellsford, springs and wells are drying up, putting huge pressure on stock water availability,” he said.

Hannah, who farms near Whangārei, said conditions had varied across the region.

“Up in Bay of Islands, they got 250 millimetres, right, I got 30 of that, and my colleagues over in Dargaville got five.”

Further south in Waikato, water shortages were also an issue.

Federated Farmers Waikato president Keith Holmes said springs and wells providing stock water had dried up.

“They’re running out of both water and feed. We desperately need water.”

He said the “prolonged” dry conditions were “very unusual” and they would need continuous rainfall to re-hydrate the soil.

Like Hannah, Holmes welcomed the drought declaration but said more rain was what was really needed.

In Whanganui, most farmers have begun destocking with feed and water levels low across most of the region.

Hill country farmer Grant Adkins said some of his dams had run dry though they didn’t rely on only these.

Photo / NIWA

“We’ve certainly got some dams that have dried up but we’re not solely reliant on them so it’s not so serious for us, but [for] people who are reliant on just dam water supply it becomes a major problem.

“They’ve either got to open up other paddocks that they’ve saved feed up, to get stock water, or transport water.”

Adkins said parts of the region had just seen a bit of rainfall in the days since the drought declaration which had added a “green tinge” and most farmers were faring “reasonably well”.

He said the crunch would be whether the autumn rain comes as going into the winter without feed will become an issue.

The $100,000 unlocked for rural support groups in the four provinces will help, and the adverse event classification also unlocks tax relief for farmers and growers and enables the Ministry of Social Development to consider rural assistance payments.

Some farmers were also cutting maize crops up to several weeks earlier than usual, Federated Farmers arable spokesperson David Birkett said. Taranaki farmers were the worst affected, and for some, yields could be back about 30%.

Lower yields mean less supplementary feed will be stored on-farm for stock in winter and spring.

Birkett said some farmers are also having to cut and feed the maize immediately, rather than store it because they have no grass.

- RNZ