Farmers' golden weather means substantial rain

As we enter another winter, many New Zealanders will look back at summer and most of autumn as a period of 'golden weather'.

For farmers in Canterbury, Otago, parts of Marlborough, the Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay, however, the memories are not so pleasant.

For these folks, it has now been more than two years without substantial rain.

Farmers are used to dealing with the vagaries of weather but, unless they are able to irrigate or have storage systems such as farm dams, their production systems are entirely dependent on rain.

All affected farmers have taken fairly drastic action with many significantly destocking and spending significant amounts on off-farm grazing or supplementary feed.

Federated Farmers is very grateful for the efforts of its members, rural support trusts, rural women's organisations, rural professionals, the Ministry, MPI and others. They continue to provide vital support and advice during what is a very challenging time.

For a number of farmers the need to send animals away for grazing or to source supplementary feed will remain in the short term, and so the Federation is again promoting the use of its Feedline.

This is a free service that lists both feed available and feed wanted and is open to all farmers to use.

Those with grazing available (or feed for sale), or who need grazing or feed can call Federated Farmers on 0800 376 844 and have this information placed on a feed needed/feed available list on our website fedfarm.org.nz.

You do not need to be a Federated Farmers member to use this service.

Federated Farmers' role is limited to providing the listing service. We do not take part in any transaction or act as an agent for any party involved.

The fine weather will break and deliver the needed rain eventually. In the meantime Federated Farmers will continue to do what it can to support all farmers affected by drought.