Weekend rain in Whanganui and Rangitīkei was great news for farmers

Delays at meat processing plants compound the problems farmers face when dealing with long, dry spells, Mike Cranstone says. Photo / Bevan Conley

Local farmers say the weekend rain was a welcome reprieve that helped to avoid a "perfect storm" on farms.

The Metservice said about 115mm was recorded at Whanganui Airport during Saturday and Sunday - while further west at Cape Egmont almost half a metre of rain was recorded over the weekend.

Whanganui Federated Farmers president Mike Cranstone said while farmers were ready for dry weather, depleted staffing at meatworks meant some farms might not be able to offload as much stock as they would have hoped.

"Covid-19 might disrupt the already depleted workforce.

"It's already very hard to get meat processed, and this (rain) will take the pressure off. There will be feed on hand if there are further delays."

Cranstone said the rain put a halt to a "perfect storm" that was brewing.

"It's exciting that we'll have good feed level in late summer in autumn."

Product prices were very good at present, Cranstone said.

He said longer, dryer spells were becoming more common, and, like any business, farmers needed to have plans in place to manage the risk.

"It emphasises the importance of having good water supplies.

"This has been ideal, and I haven't heard of any damage on farms at this stage. Any rain is good rain in summer."

Whanganui Federated Farmers president, Mike Cranstone. Photo / Supplied

Rangitīkei sheep and beef farmer Liam Connors said he received close to 150 millilitres of rain in approximately 24 hours.

"Things were very dry and crispy before that, and it was starting to bite.

"I was seriously looking at starting to unload stock. Usually I keep everything until they're prime."

Connors said it would take a while for the moisture to turn into grass growth.

"In two weeks time we'll see the results, but if we get another month of that hot, dry 30C stuff, it won't be enough.

"Ordinarily, I would be moving 150 to 200 lambs every month, but for January and February that number has been around 80.

"There would have to be regular rain every week to hold everything confidently."

Near Maxwell, dairy farmer Jarrod Murdoch got 160 millilitres of rain from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon.

"It was probably lucky we didn't get the extremes from further up in Taranaki, but we definitely needed it," Murdoch said.

"We were feeding out a lot and it was starting to get a bit serious. Although it's been an alright year, we didn't have a lot of supplement on hand. This has been quite a saviour of that as well.

"It's always great to get a good season with a good payout, which, up until these last two years, hasn't happened."

Murdoch also has kiwifruit orchards in Waitōtara, Westmere and Mangamahu, and he said the rain was much-needed there as well.

"We are still having trouble getting consents for our Westmere orchard, so it hasn't been irrigated just yet.

"It was getting to the point of needing to hand water. That's pretty time consuming when there are 20,000 plants."