South Taranaki farmers say drought is worst in more than 40 years

South Taranaki District Mayor Phil Nixon says the well on his farm between Hāwera and Manaia has run dry for the first time. Photo / RNZ

By Robin Martin of RNZ

South Taranaki farmers say a recent smattering of rain isn’t enough to break a drought, which some describe as the worst in more than 40 years.

MetService’s Hāwera weather station recorded only 123mm this entire summer – a little over half of what it normally gets.

South Taranaki District Mayor Phil Nixon farms 320 cows between Hāwera and Manaia – the area worst hit by the drought.

Nixon remembered similar conditions when he was young and his father ran the farm.

“The difference this year is that the water tables have been very low,” he said.

“I’ve never known us to struggle for well water.

“We’ve got one well on this farm that supplies all the water for the 320 cows, the cow shed and one house.

“That’s what’s been particularly difficult this time. We’re really struggling with the water side of it.”

Nixon, who was checking on his autumn calving cows when RNZ visited, had been pumping out a drain to water his animals and buying in feed.

“We’ve been buying in silage, we’re buying in extra dry feeds that we are feeding to cows to supplement them and so it’s coming in at a lot more expense, but those animals have to be fed.

“We are lucky that this year the payout is looking very good, but it would’ve been wonderful to have had the right weather and had the production and the payout all in the same year.”

He said coastal Taranaki needed more than the 39mm of rain that fell this week.

“If we don’t get a follow-up or follow-ups in the very near future, really, all of this would’ve been for nothing; but at the moment we’ll take all we get and hope the hell we get more.”

Dairy cows in drought conditions in South Taranaki. Photo / RNZ

Bryce Kaiser had just returned from feeding out to some of the 300 cows he farms on 140ha in Skeet Rd, Auroa.

He considered the drought a continuation of a dry year.

“We had a very cold southerly come through this year and it has started again now.

“I’m concerned it’s going to be an early autumn, early winter.

“I consider this the second year of drought.

“It’s started a month earlier than last year and all the effects I’ve seen on the farm, they’re about three to four weeks earlier this year.”

Skeet Rd dairy farmer Bryce Kaiser says it feels like a second year of drought in a row – only it's worse than the first. Photo / RNZ

Hāwera recorded only 71% of normal rainfall last summer.

Kaiser said unprepared farmers could get caught out.

“If you haven’t organised your winter feed, then you’re probably going to be too late because you can’t bring it in.

“Maybe from the Hawke’s Bay because they’ve had some rain.

“You may get some there, but you’ll be competing with everyone from the North Island.”

Auroa dairy farmer Kyran Muller is philosophical about the difficulties the drought presents. Photo / RNZ

Near neighbour Kyran Muller was towing palm kernel feed troughs into a night paddock.

He was philosophical about how tough things were.

“Definitely, having to get rid of cows early as well as buying in extra feed has meant we obviously made as much money, but it’s just part of the package, you know, the cows come first and have to be fed.”

Desiree Bond and her partner are contract milkers in Nolan Rd on the outskirts of Hāwera.

Surveying the browned-off pastures surrounding their home, she said declining milk production was hitting them hard.

Contract milker Desiree Bond says every litre of lost production hits her bottom line. Photo / RNZ

“The minute there’s less milk, there’s less pay. There’s no other way you draw income.

“So, when we have a drought and cows have to be dried off, culled early, or we go to once-a-day milking two months early – that severely impacts the amount of milk that goes in the vat and that affects your bottom line straight away.”

Bond said it was the driest she had seen in her 10 years milking on the coast.

“The old timers, they do remember one that was bad, but that was before I was born ... maybe the 70s, something like that.

“We are obviously hoping this is a one-off bad drought, but it does make you a bit nervous because last year we did have a long dry summer and this one’s longer.

“So, next year we’ll be all glued to the weather forecast.”

A drought has been declared in Northland, Waikato, Whanganui-Manawatū, Marlborough-Tasman and Taranaki.

This meant rural support groups could access extra government funding and farmers could apply for tax relief and rural assistance payments.

- RNZ