Zane and Marie Kite expects to lose tens of thousands of dollars of milk production this season as they farm through extreme drought conditions.
Dairy farmer Zane Kite is facing extreme drought conditions on his farm. Photo: Chris Gardner
Their Parallel Road farm, near Kaipaki, is one step ahead of the official drought declared for the region on Friday.
But there has been no rain, to speak of, since before Christmas and the Kites, who have run the family farm for 40 years, are looking at drying their 170-cow herd off a month early.
Waikato Federated Farmers provincial president Keith Holmes has described western Waikato conditions as critical, but Zane doesn’t like the word critical, as it suggests death is imminent.
“I would call it a severe drought,” he said. “There’s not one blade of green grass in any of our paddocks, but we have got to be positive.”
Waikato Federated Farmers provincial president Keith Holmes says famers should be thinking about record keeping as Plan Change One’s ruling is imminent.
He has turned to feeding out silage to keep his herd going, and it is producing approximately 1 kg of milk solids per cow per day. Because of the lack of moisture, he’ll be drying his herd off a month early in March.
The Kites have farmed through droughts before, but what makes this one different is the speed at which things went from good to bad last month.
“This is the quickest I have seen it change. It’s really very dry,” he said. “Things are pretty bad on the farm. It’s a bit disappointing with the payout being so high all of the profits are going back into feeding supplement.”
Holmes is chairing regular meetings with representatives of the Waikato-Hauraki-Coromandel Rural Support Trust and the Ministry for Primary Industries to monitor the situation. The group last met on Tuesday (March 11).
“The West Coast area spreading up from Taranaki to south of Pukekohe are pretty bad,” Holmes said.
“It’s getting pretty grim in the southwest parts. People are feeding out their spring supplements and maize crops are showing signs of wilting.”
Drought conditions in Kaipaki near Cambridge
Taharoa sheep and beef farmers Chris Irons and Debbie Hastie are doing their best to fend off the drought on their 770ha farm, having received around half of the rain they usually do in January and February.
Around 70mm of rain fell on their Waitete Road farm in January, and 50mm of rain in February.
Irons, Waitomo Federated Farmers chair, said they were coping “due to good management” of more than 2000 ewes and 200 breeding cows.
“We are constantly asking ourselves if it does not rain in the next 10 days, what are we going to do?” Irons said. “Look after your capital stock first. It is what it is. We can’t control it.”
John Robertson
“Hill country farming in these conditions is very challenging,” said Waitomo mayor John Robertson who is watching the situation closely.
“The hills throughout the district are very dry – the driest February that I have seen for many years. The few occasions where we have had up to 5mm of rain through this period have not been sufficient to adequately moisten the soils.”
“March forecasts do not look promising – a little rain, but not the many days of steady soaking rain we need.”
Robertson said he supported any message Federated Farmers sends to central Government, including seeking support for the Rural Support Trust.
“It’s pretty challenging out there, that’s for sure,” said Pukeatua dairy farmer and Waipā Agricultural Services operator Dwayne Little.
Cambridge Water Delivery owner Norm McFarlane hasn’t had a day off since Christmas.
Cambridge Water Delivery owner Norm McFarlane said he was so busy he had had not had a day off since Christmas Day.
“This is the busiest it has been for six years,” he said.
The majority of his clients were not on a town water supply, while about 15 per cent were farmers who called on him when their bores dried up.
It was a similar story at Te Awamutu Bulk Water.
Drought conditions
