Dairy farmers are struggling to feed their cows this spring, as sodden paddocks are trampled underfoot and cannot support tractor-loads of feed.
"It's absolutely shocking here," Dalefield farmer Pam Fitzgerald, who runs a dairy support unit, said yesterday.
"I've got so many paddocks wrecked. You think everything has come right, and itrains again. In all my years of farming, I've never had a winter-spring like this. I've got lakes on my place, with ducks and ducklings."
Carterton has had more rain in autumn than elsewhere in Wairarapa and groundwater levels are at maximum.
"Water is bubbling up through the ground," Ms Fitzgerald said. "I could show you a paddock that's been a bog hole since June. The water has gone stagnant and the grass has died."
Flooding three times in the past two weeks had compounded problems, with a struggle getting vehicles on to paddocks and the wind blowing feed away.
Ruts up to 40cm deep now risked hardening, and Ms Fitzgerald said paddocks would need to be worked "as soon as I can get a roller on" and resown.
"Pasture damage is so expensive," she said. "Cattle need sunshine and they need it dry. They're getting sick of it as much the farmers are."
Dairy consultant Chris Ladd, of Baker and Associates, said the struggle many farmers had was "getting feed down throats".
"It's just how wet the paddocks are."
In some cases, farmers had had to stand cattle off, letting them feed for three to four hours and then shifting them so they didn't destroy the pasture.
Mr Ladd said not many paddocks were able to take a tractor, and some struggled to support a quad and trailer for feeding out. At this time of the season cattle should be approaching their peak production, Mr Ladd said.
If access to feed continued to be restricted production will be down for the year.
Mr Ladd said the next challenge was getting cattle fit and ready for mating in October.
A drawn-out mating season meant longer calving, and dairy farmers were losing the ability to shorten the calving season by inducing cows to give birth.
Fonterra has set targets to limit induction, down from 15 per cent maximum this year to 8 per cent next year.
