Drought monitoring in northland continues

The Rural Support Trust Northland (RST) is sounding a note of caution to farmers about complacency following the rain that fell in some areas across the region last month.
 
RST coordinator and Northland Drought Committee spokesperson Helen Moodie says it’s too soon to say the drought is over.

“Although Rodney is not actually part of the area classified as at a medium scale for drought, we are continuing to monitor conditions in the lower north,” she says. “While it is certainly very dry there now, our understanding is that the spring was much kinder to farmers in those areas so they generally have more supplement on hand.”

Gordon Levet, who farms Romneys at Hoteo North, is just out of the drought area. He says this summer is normal, if not a little better than some others he’s seen in 50 years of farming.

“Stock health is good, the facial eczema count low, and not likely to cause any problem for a while as it takes at least three weeks for the levels to rise,” he says. “My local vet club issues updates weekly. As always, the worm challenge is substantial.

“We had 40mm of rain a week or so ago which freshened drier country. I think we’ve been lucky compared to farmers further north, or out on the Kaipara.”
Matakana Winegrowers Association president Robin Ransom says unlike pastoralists, the prolonged dry weather is ideal for wine growers.

Although he says it’s still too early to predict the volume and quality of grapes to be harvested this year, he is expecting good average volumes.

Harvesting of some varieties will start this month, with the bulk of the crop due to be picked in April.

No statistics are kept on the volume of wine produced from the 30-odd vineyards in the Matakana district, an omission that a NZ Winegrowers spokesperson says they plan to address in the next year or two.