Drought hits farmers in the pocket

Dams which supply region are 6 per cent lower than usual for this time of the year. Photo / Christine Cornege

Ohinewai farmer Peter Brown kicks the ground, sending a small cloud of dust in the air.

The land under his feet should be showing green ahead of the cold winter months to come.

Instead, it is brown, barren and almost as hard as concrete.

"Until now 2008 was the worst I've had to deal with in terms of dryness but we got through it all right," said Mr Brown.

"Last year was a poor to average year in which we were still feeling the effects of 2008.

"Now it's 2010 and we thought we'd get out of it but this is what we're faced with ... it's really taken its toll on stock and production."

Mr Brown's woes are typical of farmers in northern parts of the Waikato, which Agriculture Minister David Carter declared a medium-level drought zone last week, the second time the region has been in drought in three years.

Since December 8 last year, the Brown farm has had just 128mm of rain.

He has made the costly but necessary decision to dry his herd off eight weeks earlier than planned.

"That's about 20 per cent of my production gone right there, that could be in my pocket but instead it's put me into a debt situation - again," he said.

Rural Support Trust chairman Neil Bateup agreed with Mr Brown that drought conditions are worse than the big dry in 2008 that cost the economy $2.8 billion.

That year, Waikato farms took the lion's share - or 45 per cent - of the losses.

Mr Bateup said at least 500 dairy herds have been dried off in Waikato this year compared with 15 a year ago.

"It's a grim situation," Mr Bateup said.

"A lot of farmers have tried to hold on and keep going in the hope they would get some rain ... but it's got to the point where it's about preserving the stock and their welfare."

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry spokesman Phil Journeaux said the average cost of this year's drought to Waikato farmers was between $100,000 and $200,000.