A spike in lamb casualties and a shortage of feed supplies are worrying Southland farmers amid spring snowfalls and an uncommonly wet September.
Slink skin processor NZAGRI Development technical adviser Eddie Zhi said wet weather and recent snow in Southland meant an increase in lamb casualties.
Since he set up shop in August, Zhi said, collectors have brought him over 70,000 lambs – but more than 25,000 of those were collected this week alone after snow hit the region.
Collectors usually collect lambs once a day, but this week collectors have been out on two collection runs a day because of increased casualty rates, he said.
Rates increased so much he is now looking for extra collectors.
A spokesperson for Environment Southland said in the first 16 days of September, parts of Southland had already recorded 200% more rain than the long-term average for the entire month.
A MetService spokesperson said Lumsden had received 131mm of rain so far this month, while the September average is 66.2mm, based on data from 1991-2020.
Winton dairy farmer and dairy chair for Federated Farmers Southland Bart Luijten said the branch has been receiving calls from farmers wanting to offload cows in the short term, so they can minimise damage to land during wet soil conditions.
Despite the province having a feed surplus for much of the year, feed supplies are now low in some regions of Southland, Luijten said.
Some farmers are milking once a day because of low feed supplies, he said.
Farmers are trying to mitigate the impact of current weather and feed conditions in any way they can.
There is some hope as rains are predicted to ease over the next couple of days, he said.
He advised farmers to talk to friends and not isolate themselves when times are tough.
“Everyone is in the same boat. We’re trying to do our best, but there are things out of our control. You might just have to lower expectations and make decisions day by day.”
Luijten said the Southland community is rallying to help each other, with silage contractors who can’t work because of wet weather helping farmers feed out so they can have a day off.
A Facebook post for the branch asked anyone with spare feed or the ability to take on cows to let the branch know so they can be put in contact with farmers wanting to shift cows for the short term.
Balfour arable farmer Blair Drysdale said the wet weather has been holding up growers’ ability to apply fertilisers.
He said there is a small window to apply growth regulator to autumn-sown wheat and barley, and he is considering using a helicopter to apply it as it is hard to get machinery into paddocks.
Crops have had “wet feet for too long” and might drown, Drysdale said.
He also runs sheep and is feeding out as he has feed shortages.
Head weather analyst and owner of WeatherWatch.co.nz Phil Duncan said soil moisture maps from NIWA don’t show anything too alarming, but some parts of northern Southland might be wetter than usual.
“Snow events in Southland are quite common in September. The Southern Ocean weather is especially stormy this year with particularly low air pressure. This means stormy lows normally parked nearer to Antarctica have the ability to shift much closer to southern NZ. This September and Spring have a higher than normal chance of winter outbreaks, so Southland and Otago are clearly in the firing line for that when it does happen,” he said.
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