Parched farmers forced to sell stock

Ivan Knyvett with the cows that will be sent to sale early because of the lack of feed on his Matamata farm. Photo / Alan Gibson

Waikato dairy farmer Ivan Knyvett says the predicted wettest summer in two decades will come too late for his parched farm as he prepares for his fourth drought in as many years.

Mr Knyvett is among a number of farmers in the region that have started sending stock off to freezing works - six to eight weeks earlier than normal.

Reports are also emerging of other dairy farmers who have started drying their herds off, costing them thousands of dollars in lost productivity.

Soil moisture deficit levels on Mr Knyvett's 108ha farm at Matamata were at 75ml, meaning that amount of rain was needed to saturate the ground for a return to normal levels.

But the unusually balmy weather is forecast to continue with no significant rain in the Waikato this month.

And despite a weather expert's predictions that January will be the wettest in the North Island for 21 years, Mr Knyvett said this would be too late.

"Normally we have grass right through to the middle of January but it's just not there at the moment because it has been so dry," he said.

"We are getting just the odd little showers of rain, ideally you would like 20ml each time but last night I got about 2ml."

On Wednesday, Agriculture Minister David Carter declared Northland a medium-level drought zone, triggering government-funded relief measures such as farm management advice and income support for those affected.

Next week Mr Carter will visit the Waikato, which along with the central plateau is considered the driest area behind Northland.

It is rumoured that he will declare the region a drought zone during his visit, which will be another blow for Waikato farmers whose losses during the 2008 drought accounted for 40 per cent of the $2.8 billion lost nationally.

Like many other farmers in the area, Mr Knyvett had been unable to grow enough feed and silage supplies for his stock while the costs of supplementary feed had risen.

"It costs 30 cents a kilogram for palm kernel so that's about $700 per hectare," he said.

"When you multiply that by the number of hectares on my farm it works out to about $70,000 ... people will say 'Oh but you're a dairy farmer what about your payout?' but all of it is going on feed and maintenance."

Ohinewai dairy farmer and chairman of the Waikato region's Rural Support Trust, Neil Bateup, said farmers' resilience was stretched having coped with droughts in the past three summers.

During a good year he would dry off his herd of 750 cows in May but will next week dry off 100 of them because of the unusually dry conditions.

"Farmers only started milking at the end of July so it's a huge loss ... we really are getting it at all ends."

Mr Bateup said about 30 Waikato farmers had until December 31 to continue accessing emergency assistance from the last drought but could be lining up again if the rains don't come.

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's North Island manager for policy Phil Journeaux said MAF was considering a request from the Waikato Regional Drought Committee to declare the region in drought.

Mr Journeaux said the situation was serious and conditions were worse now than in the spring before the 2008 drought with average soil moisture deficit levels at 100ml throughout the region.

"If it doesn't rain soon the rain in January probably will be too late," he said.