There may have been rain in the Nelson Tasman region but the drought is far from over. That was the resounding message at the recent Drought Shout held by the Top of the South Rural Support Trust in Upper Moutere.
Guest speaker Brent Boyce, FarmWise consultant for LIC, told those gathered that although brief rain mid-April had brought green to the paddocks, the lack of a second downpour meant the creeks had stopped flowing again and farmers were back to square one.
“Since June, September’s the only month in nearly a year now there’s been average rainfall,” Boyce said.
“The issue is our soil moisture levels and aquifers are so low, we need three rains to get the moisture level in the soil up, but we only had one.”
The drought actually started underneath the ground, he said.
“Aquifers and bores weren’t replenished in the winter, and they certainly missed out in spring. So it’s got a lot drier deeper down and that’s the problem.
“In central Tasman, we reached wilting point on 23rd December – that’s where the grass stopped growing.”
At the event with a group from the Tasman Valley Young Farmers was Bryce Win, who said that until mid-April, the 380 hectares of effective land he farms with his parents in Dovedale had received only 40mm of rain since New Year’s Day.
Trying to keep stock fed has been helped by supplies of discarded local kiwifruit. Baleage is already being used from supplies set aside for winter, and for ewes sheep nuts had been needed in greater numbers than ever before.
“Everyone’s short of feed,” said Boyce. “Looking at stock condition, it’s ranging from light to okay but there are real concerns around how tough it’s going to be for sheep and beef guys, issues with weight on young stock, and how we’re going to get them through the winter. It’s going to take time to get back to normal and the feeding out is not stopping.”
He said he knew of some sheep and beef farmers who’d taken full-time jobs off farm in order to support wage commitments for those they employ.
Chair of the Top of the South Rural Support Trust Richard Kempthorne stressed to those attending not to be afraid to access the Business Advice Fund.
“This makes up to $6000 accessible to those who’re in a difficult financial position and need advice about how to go forward, with the costs equally shared between the farmer or grower’s bank and the Rural Support Trust,” Kempthorne said.
At a Rural Advisory Group meeting that day Kempthorne said there had been agreement that despite greening following the rain, there’d still been no growth.
He recommended those feeling the pinch to call the 0800 787 254 number to contact Sarah White, wellbeing coordinator at the Trust, to talk through options.
Among the questions raised by those gathered were concerns for the support farmers would need once things were back on track.
“I feel very concerned for them at this time,” said one of the attendees. “What can be done to help them?”
Kempthorne advised that one of the best support mechanisms is the rural sector itself.
“But if you are aware of someone [struggling] sing out to us at the Rural Support Trust so we’re able to come and stand alongside and help work through.”
Boyce noted that he knew of a number of places having to let staff go.
“Then some of the intellectual property often goes out the door with them as well. It’s that tough out there at the moment.”
Frustratingly, the drought isn’t more widely recognised, Boyce said.
“It’s disappointing when you read in some of the town papers that the drought’s broken and we’re all good when actually the real work’s still to come. We’ve still got to recover.
“It’s going to take two to six months physical recovery. If we get good weather by mid-July we might be right, but we’ve got a lot of work.
“We’ve also got stress recovery, because a lot of people are under a heck of a lot of stress. And then unfortunately we’ve got the financial recovery and for some people it’s going to be interseasonal, so it’s going to take maybe one to two seasons or longer to come right.
“People talk about it being a double hit – that’s a load of rubbish,” he added. “We’ve had a quadruple whammy. We’ve got a drought, low commodity prices, high inflation on farm – which is estimated at 17% – and interest rates two to three times what they were 18 months ago.”
One dairy farmer said she’d had to find alternative work teaching due to the impact of the drought resulting in the drying up of work.
Fifth-generation Upper Moutere farmer Keith Best said the extreme conditions had resulted in him and his wife having to reassess their retirement plans. Both had supplementary jobs to help support their farm and they’d destocked to the extent that they are now running at half of the number of animals they usually would have at this time of year.
“This drought’s been quite unique in that it’s the first we’ve had without the stock having access to the river. The river and vegetation around it had always been a very valuable resource in the dry Nelson summers but now our stock’s sitting in the middle of dry, parched, land in the full sun.
“We were given quite a bit of warning of El Niño so we could destock early but that doesn’t help our income moving forward, so that’s where our stresses are coming in.
“Then come spring when we try to restock the farm, the prices will likely be expensive. Probably what we’ll end up doing is putting a lot of the grass we grow into hay and baleage to restock our supplies, but there’s no short-term profit in that.”
At nearly 63, Best and his wife had been hoping to give up the paid work off farm.
“Now it’s become glaringly obvious that we’ll have to keep that on because it’s going to take a couple of years for the farm to recover. That has quite an emotional effect in itself.”
Best was heartened by the news at the event that Federated Farmers had activated a feed coordination line to link those in need of supplies and grazing with those who have excess.
“That’s been good to hear this evening because we’ve only got enough feed to get through to the end of July so we’ll be needing to buy some in,” he said.
“That puts a lot of financial stress on farmers and is another reason why this meeting’s been good because the emphasis has also been on looking after yourself.”
