More rain needed to ease Whanganui's drought

Screens have been installed between staff in meatworks, to ensure separation. Photo / supplied

The weekend's rain was a good start - but not enough to end drought conditions in Whanganui.

The town and surrounds got just 20mm of rain, mainly on March 27. Inland at Waiouru it was even less - 17mm.

Most of the North Island is still in the drought declared by the Agriculture Minister on March 12. It would take at least 100mm of rain to end that, MetService weather consultant Georgina Griffiths said.

Wellington and Wairarapa were lucky to get that much in the past 48 hours. The rest of the island is still wanting, and Whanganui is forecast to stay dry until the end of the coming weekend.

Federated Farmers Wanganui chairman Mike Cranstone got 20mm at his Kauangaroa property last weekend.

"Things have greened up, but it does take time for the pastures to cover, so people are still very short of feed," he said.

What's needed now is about the same amount of follow-up rain within the next two weeks.

It is especially dry inland in the hill country.

The lack of wind and cooler temperatures are at least stopping soil drying out quickly. And luckily the rain so far has been cooler, which may stop facial eczema being a problem this autumn.

"On the flip side, we need it to stay warm enough to grow grass and build cover."

Farmers are sending lambs and cattle they cannot feed to meatworks for processing. But meatworks meanwhile are having their own Covid-19 problems.

"At the moment all the companies here are reconfiguring their plants to allow worker separation. As a result they're probably only running at 50 per cent capacity," Cranstone said.

Farmers are grateful to the meatworkers, Cranstone said, for continuing to process their stock.

"There's always some risk, even with those separation measures taken."