'So far, so good' for new season lambs in Tairāwhiti/Gisborne region

Photo / File

New lambs have begun to arrive in parts of the district and AgFirst consultant Peter Andrew says he is "quite optimistic" about the prospects for the season in Tairāwhiti.

Early lambing farms on the lower country near the coast have begun to see new arrivals in the past 10 days.

"It's just starting for the early country," Andrew said.

"The bulk of the lamb crop will arrive next month and into early September, when the back-country farms kick in with theirs."

He said the majority of farmers in the region were "pretty happy" with their scanning results heading into lambing.

"They're not too bad in most cases and the ewes in most cases are in really good order.

"That's really good considering the impact of the 'dry' in places, and the animal health issues than can come up.

He said the ewes tended to be a bit more fragile after drought-like conditions, but he was optimistic about the lambing season here.

Andrew said it was a different story down in Hawke's Bay where the drought had a much more serious impact.

"Some farmers down there face a real uphill battle with their lambing this season.

"So far, so good when it comes to weather conditions here at present.

"Some farms are a little low in their feed covers, so we want the warm weather to continue.

"So fingers crossed."