Lambing can be a tough time when the elements work against you, as farmers in Southland and South Otago are finding.
This unrelenting spell of cold wet snowy weather has taken a huge toll on lambing flocks in these areas.
To put this in perspective in monetary terms their loss will be much greater than Canterbury farmers costs from the earthquake.
Most of the earthquake damage will be covered by some degree by insurance, but new born lambs and capital stock lost in the snow will have to be covered by the indivdual farmers themselves.
Some assistance to help cope with this situation is avaliable if the Government declares this situation an adverse event, but for some 2010/11 will be a very lean year.
Having farmed in this area and experienced the Canterbury snowfalls of 1992, my sympathies go out for all involved.
Federated Farmers is urging the Government to declare parts of South Otago and Southland an adverse event zone, in light of six days of blizzards that have killed tens of thousands of newborn calves and lambs the worst spring storm in living memory. The number of lambs killed will not be known until tailing, but at an expected average farm-gate price of $80 a lamb, the cost to farmers could be measured in millions of dollars.
Agriculture Minister David Carter will visit Southland today to see the disaster first-hand reports The Otago Daily Times. Mr Rose, a farmer from Winton, said, "The biggest thing an adverse event declaration gives us is access to advice from the Rural Support Trust and recognition. "The spring storm of 2010 is frankly the worst in a generation with farmers going back over 50 years for anything this bad."
He estimated half the farms in Southland - about 800 - could be affected. On the worst affected farms, breeding ewes were also being lost. An adverse event declaration would give affected farmers access to assistance with cleaning up, individual and family support and recovery assistance.
Clinton and Owaka farmer John Latta said farmers were frustrated because there was little they could do. Even sheltered areas were turning to bog and lambs were dying after being born in a puddle or mud. Farmers did not like seeing animals stressed or suffering, but having six days of blizzards and wet and cold conditions was exceptional.
44 Comments
As I just posted elsewhere, my daughter phoned earlier from Gore, with news that the station next door had lost 10,000 lambs at the latest count. She said this is the worst she had seen in her 5 years in Southland, at any time of the year. As for my own situation, the cows are light, their calves havent grown, lambs are dying, but thankfully in small numbers, docking cant be done, pasture covers are dropping when they should be rising. Oh joy. Having lived here for 20 years, and not believing in global warming, I am a bit sus on these storms, in the last 3 years we have had such over the top weather, all farmers I know are scratching their heads just wondering whats going to hit next.
Yeah its been bloody brutal down here and its still going. Worse conditions for lambing/calving are hard to imagine. Its the relentlesness of it all that is the killer. You expect to get a storm at some point for a day or two through lambing but for freezing/blizzard/wet/windy conditions to last a week is soul destroying. Its hard to say what the financial implications will be but it seems irrelevant at the moment. Seeing stock suffer is way more stressful than any financial hit.
I felt quite angry driving through Central Otago last week, looking at the shorn sheep and new-born lambs and knowing what was to come. Farmers can choose when to shear sheep and when to put the rams out. Why do they do it so early in that part of the country? The biggest cold snap of the year is often in September.
SimonP, they use cover combs or clippers and by shearing early they miss all the seeds getting in the wool. We cannot farm every year like its going to be a 1 in a 100 weather event or we may as well give up. It feel like you just cannot win farming at the moment. What has been good practice is tripping us up again and again. How would you like to live in CHCH and expect another earthquake like the last one every year?
I dont understand....
We have been having bigger and more intense cold snaps over the last decade or so....The climate is changing.
So why , considering the weather trend do farmers still have lambing mid Sept.???
I can still rem going around paddocks as kid on my Grand Fathers farm , picking up the dead lambs, and then finding one still alive that my grand mother would put in the oven to warm up...and getting some of those who survived hooked up with surrogate mothers in the house paddock.....
It because our markets want lamb earlier. If you lamb early you get the x-mas market then its the Easter Market, after that the price drops. You need to lamb before your spring flush so you can use the grass effectivley. In the old days lamb was worth a lot more, you got a shepherd for a month on a couple of lambs now they get through a couple a day. Its not easy being at the bottom of the pile and most farmers are stretched doing the job done by 3 men in our grandparents time.
Comments from the likes of SimonP are hardly helpful. Leave farming the the farmers. Lambs are planned to be born in September do coincide with the grass growth, so the ewes can maximise lactation. Sheep are often shorn in the winter months to restrict a chance of a break in the wool fibre, rendereing the wool as tender and unusable for processing. Sheep naturally have a lot of grease in their wool and once shorn means a lot of the rain runs off easier. Imagine being in the rain with a 5kg woollen jersey on. Wool can hold three times its own weight in water, so imagine how much energy it would take for a ewe to walk around with a wet fleece. And once shorn a ewe will seek shelter with their lamb/lambs hopefully protecting the lamb from the elements. But no farmers planning or good management can protect their livestock from the type of weather they are getting down south.
dinky - no don't leave solution seeking just to the farmers only - as we are experiencing for years it doesn't work. I'm sure out in the community are other clever people, who may have an innovative solution or two. It is a matter of having the right attidude and work together.
II try again and hope we can have a positive debate on that issue.
Andrew & other farmers all we can hear is moaning, where are the solutions ?
I wrote many times under the increase influence of climate change agriculture has to adapt.
When each year 100'000 plus lambs die, leaving behind suffering and financial stress, caused by weather conditions - there must be better farming solutions for some regions of New Zealand ?
The world is changing and forever = new ideas/ visions = more diversity in NZfarming.
Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeer
Reindeer meat is popular in the Scandinavian countries. Reindeer meatballs are sold canned. Sautéed reindeer is the best-known dish in Lapland. In Alaska and Finland, reindeer sausage is sold in supermarkets and grocery stores. Reindeer meat is very tender and lean. It can be prepared fresh, but also dried, salted, hot- and cold-smoked. In addition to meat, almost all internal organs of reindeer can be eaten, some being traditional dishes.[31] Furthermore, Lapin Poron liha fresh Reindeer meat completely produced and packed in Finnish Lapland is protected in Europe with PDO classification[32][33].
Reindeer antler is powdered and sold as an aphrodisiac, nutritional or medicinal supplement to Asian markets.
Caribou have been a major source of subsistence for Canadian Inuit.
We will need the Dunedin Stadium as emergency accomodation for all the Dunedinites who are homeless because they can't afford rates or rent. It will be nice and warm because of the grow lamps required to keep the grass growing.
Indigent Stadium Residents will all clear out on the odd ocation that the stadium is required for a sporting event- probably 3 or 4 times a year. I wish other councils had the forsight to provide for the poor the way the Dunedin City Council has!
I guess the stadium would be great for stock/lambing, before the rates hikes kick in. This is truely what we call a multi-purpose stadium.
Walter, you need to understand the difference between a farmers 'moan' and 'honest comment'. Comments from Andrewj and Sheep Shagger are as much 'farmers talking to each other' as they are talking to the world at large. As you are so keen to remind us 'read the comments in context'. It's sometimes about context Walter!
Farming Reindeer is not one of them! :-)
We have had our farm for more than a decade in Southland Walter and this is the first time we have experienced prolonged weather like this. We will continue to practice sustainable farming to the best of our abilities. The weather we cannot control, so will do what every other farmer does - cope with what we get given, the best we can.
i do appreciate though what kunst is saying about the need for some lateral thinking and a wide ranging discussion in search of answers....
issues around market timing and season effects on wool are something only farmers will know, but it doesn't hurt to chuck some ideas around as long as people are just trying to help right?
i think we can safely predict that the weather will get more unpredictable and so some serious brainstorming must be worth a try at least. for one i'd be happy to have spent a few millions of the scf bailout on some free transport/feed/labour for people in need in the south.
reindeer sounds a bit potty, but who knows? catching deer by helicopter was thought to be barmy for a while wasn't it? besides, reindeer is probably less silly than ostriches or llllamas....
gotta go now...a dogs show is on tvnz6 gettwayroundblue!!
Firstly Andrewj, thank you for the kind gesture of offering hay. It wont be necessary but the thought was much apprechiated.
SimonP, I think Andrew j covered the prelamb shearing issue well but I can inform you that this practice will have saved me possibly hundreds of lambs this week. The ewes all sort shelter which at least gives the newborns a chance the tops were desserted. Last year lambing at this time could have been done in shorts it is just a freak storm this year. Maybe this will become more commonplace if the climate change people are right if so we would adapt. I am only in my third year farming down south and from this experience there will be a lessons learned for the future but its essentially out of our hands when it comes to extreme events like this week.
When each year 100'000 + lambs die, leaving behind suffering and financial stress, often bankruptcy, caused by increasingly severe weather conditions - there must be better farming solutions for the most affected regions of New Zealand ?
Q - Belle wrote: All farmers I know are scratching their heads just wondering whats going to hit next.- Q Again and again and again.
Reading and study some analyses/ facts, I have to say reindeer could eventually for some, but in general wouldn’t be an ideal farming option here in NZ. However, I think considering options for more product diversity under the climate change scenario would be far more successful, especially for the sheep farming community of NZ.
Kunst "When each year 100000= lambs die..." From my perspective this is an extreme event not necessarily an "each year" event. If you are proved right in the fullness of time we will adapt accordingly. Last year there was a record lambing% . We now produce 40% more lambs per ewe mated than 20 years ago and 2% more total meat from half the number of sheep.Scientists have isolated a cold tolerence gene that ram breeders are selecting for and will permeate commercial flocks over time. Its not time to throw in the towel because of one storm and put up the raindeer yards just yet.
Sheep Shagger- below some competent, interesting, but at the same time sad information:
A study from 1987 says about 6 million lamb died each year in the first 3 days.
here new informations from 2009:
http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/PageFiles/9614/Lamb-cold-tolerance.ppt#286,19,Acknowledgements
As a result it is just in line what I’m proposing earlier.
Sheep Shagger you said: Its not time to throw in the towel because of one storm and put up the raindeer yards just yet.
I still remember in 1992 a cold/ snowy winter sheep and farmer suffering - our family donated $1’000 like many others for the sheep farmer community – will they ever learn and serioulsy consider new ideas under Climate Change ?
In current, perhaps repeated severe weather events do you and other sheep farmers see a risk of financial stress or even bankruptcy ? When yes, what are your alternatives ?
SimonP: What government support do you understand farmers have received.
A couple of years ago we looked at a property in an area that we were not overly familiar with. In seeking information bout grass growth patterns etc we were told to expect 2 dry years out of 5. Our bankers expectation of production in that area was set lower than other areas to allow for this. Stocking rates would need to be lower to ensure that you didn't adversely suffer when those 2 years hit. That area is now being affected by snow etc. While it is acknowledged to be a 'dry' area it is not known to be a 'snow area.
Fonterra's Edgecumbe factory has a twisted RSJ beam on display by the road with a plaque explaining about the 1980's earthquake. I drive past it frequently and it serves as a potent reminder that you can plan all you like but nature will have the last say.
Moral hazard? No, that's for those who don't have insurance and who practice questionable lending all the while knowing there's a GG to protect investors.
Kunst, this is not climate change, weather events like this have been happening for generations of NZ farmers. Just as this year has been rubbish for lambing up an down the country, last year it hardly rained for 6 weeks during lambing any where. Just part of the ups and downs in farming.
Yes alot of lambs die in the first 3 days, but a farmers without bad weather will lose 10-15% of them due to mismothering, disease, and some ewes just deciding they only want one lamb.
As far as better options for some regions, farmers have always looked for diversification, they have tried goats, deer, ostrich, kiwifruit, grapes, olives. The list goes on. But then non farmers and "investors" suddenly get in on the act and ruin it for everyone.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/4162825/Govt-We-will-help-farmers
As long as Climate Changes aren’t accepted – serious actions are not taken. This can/ will not only bankrupt individuals, businesses, councils, insurance companies, but defaulting entire nations.
It seems to me in the last few years we are constantly cleaning up, what weather events are going to human properties – without serious actions a prohibitively expensive exercise.
I accept the anwers re makets etc etc.....
But still get the feeling that its an economical tradeoff, gamble Sth farmers take each yr...maybe trying to keep comnpetive with farmers further nth???
Bit of a cunumberum really isnt it?.
It seems 7 to 14 days makes a huge difference, and to do so would depend on the freezing works and shipping scedules??? So it seems to me, that better organisation of the freezing works and shipping scdeluals need to be looked at...or put another way the Sthn farmers are caught between the ocean and deep blue (stormy) sea by those they supply to.
So the question now becomes not "why farmers dont delay a week or so?" But why doesnt the rest of the industry co operate with the farmers rather the farmers co operating with them?
Kunst, Is it climate or is it weather? I think you are drawing a long bow to suggest this is anything other than a one off weather event. Perhaps it is climate change in action and if so we will have to adapt accordingly over time. To suggest we throw the baby out with the bath water is I think is abit premature. Steptoe good point re lambing dates and rest assured it is a debate I am having with myself in terms of next season and no doubt others too. As I have said above there are lessons to be learned from this. On the positive side there was a break in the weather overnight although a new front has since hit but not as bad as previously.
SS ..well put re Kunst and his climate change stuff.Funny how 1 week we are bomarded with co2 ,glaciers retreating,polar caps melting etc etc.. i.e "Global warming"
then when we get an event like the current storm in Southland and all of a sudden we have "Climate Change" and should be prepared and its all our own fault.They tell me that "muppet" by the name of Manning(Victoria Uni climate scientist?) was on CloseUp blaming farmers for not getting ready for these extreeme events.
Its the only spin they can take when their "climate models are not working to plan and the earth is in fact cooling.
Any way all the best from those of us up in the soggy lower North island.At least those lambs left alive should be worth something due to the likely shortage
hey mr shagger, i've remember seeing on country calendar a farmer down south who had built a structure that was basically a roof of about half an acre with i think a rammed earth floor.....enough for a good number of stock to shelter under in shocking weather......does this ring any bells?
actually i found it Ms C.O
http://tvnz.co.nz/country-calendar/s2010-e24-video-3670975
he calls it a herd home........
i'm not saying that be exactly transferable to southland but its this kind of lateral thinking that obviously benefits people who employ it right?
VL. The herd home idea is on the surface a good idea and im sure works well for wintering cows. Im not sure it would have done any good for lambing ewes, heres why. Ewes need as much room as possible to seek out a lambing spot(hopefully sheltered) and lamb away in there own time and space.If they all lamb in one spot it is bedlem and mismothered lambs everywhere. In the northern hemisphere they lamb indoors but it is a very labour intensive operation and mainly done with much smaller numbers. I would imagine it would be uneconomic to have such a system here. Let us remember sheep have been farmed in NZ for 150 odd years and whilst from time to time we suffer adverse weather events on the whole the nz climate has proved as good as anywhere in the world for freerange livestock farming. In fact it is no exaggeration to state that NZs economy to a greater or lesser extent has been built on it. Please believe that no farmer would intentionally put their stock in danger. Its in no ones interest to do that.
that's interesting mr shag about lambing ewes needing some personal space. geez they're bloody difficult animals aren't they?
also, i though that herd home was more sturdy than the one in that episode of country calendar. i'm not sure that structure would have stood up to what you guys have been through in the last week eh?
watching that episode again, it is encouraging to see forward looking farmers getting some publicity. from my townie perspective that was a fine looking property and good looking stock and a good attitude to local waterways
Some of the plastic covered herd homes have been severely damaged by the snow. Some owners were told to slash the plastic coverings in order to save the skeleton structure. My wireless internet is too slow to watch the video VL so I am not sure what was on it and I see it is 2010. So I guess I was too quick to assume you saw it on tnvz6. :-)
You may find these links interesting VL
http://www.nzfeatrust.org.nz/content/1/default.aspx
There are a lot of farmers out there doing a lot of good work with regards environment, but good news doesn't sell like bad news. ;-)
Belle, I have a better understanding/knowledge of economics due to reading threads on this site, so I would like to think that occassionally some of my comments will help to educate others about the realities of farming. I do however have a strong belief that non-farmers will never be able to truly understand the psyche of a bona fide farmer, especially those of us who are fervent supporters of co-ops! Then again I will never understand what the Keynesian theory of economics is despite it being referred to in various threads here. :-)
No worries CO...look at it like this....It's a big fat govt mismanaged scam...always a failure but always spun as a success....they win you lose!
Two versions CO...you have the munny printing Zimbabwe style bullshit...double the bits of toilet paper and add ten zeros to every number approach( also known as the nuclear way)......and you have the less obvious but just as destructive style of theft mismanaged by govt always with the help of a thieving Reserve Bank...this is also known as the "Kiwi way" where you lose about 3 to 5% of the real value of your savings every bloody year!.......that's where your chocolate fish that once cost 3 pennies when you started your social indoctrination aged 5, now costs about $3 each.
The lesson CO that you were not allowed to learn during 'indoctrination' was ....do not save wealth in the form of paper munny...it is constantly being turned to shit by govt....save your wealth into things or stuff that avoids govt theft.
Kunst, Is it climate or is it weather? I think you are drawing a long bow to suggest this is anything other than a one off weather event."
Hay making...in the 60s wherever my Grandfather lived it was all in by christmas....the late 60s/70s saw some hot late summers, we where making hay over Christmas, because the change in weather CYCLES at that time.
A few yrs later it was aging in just before Christmas...
Hay making one can see the grass mature , one harvests because of what stage it is at...not because of " oh the seasons have changed a bit we will now harvest this week next yr" but it is because of season change the grass matures different and the time changes
Lambing.....this doesnt happen....
My Brother in law in the 70s...noticed change on his farm...decided, against all local advice, to put maize in as a winter feed..floowing yr so did the neighbor, yr after maize paddocks everywhere....
The issue is not about climate change or regular season changes..that irrelevant, what is relevant is that the weather changes, and farmers need to meet and work with nature...not in spit of it.
lets look briefly at pre fossil fuel weather...what caused the dark ages...the weather change and crop failure
Why did naval technology not change much for a few 100 yrs, but suddenly guys like Tasman , Columbus start to head outover the horizon? change in climate cycle...less storms, not as severe, and they could get back home..
Dont get me wrong personally I have no doubt fossil fuels have are changing our climate at unprecedented speed since the Industrial revolution...But at the same time it would be totally stupid to ignore the normal mini climate fluctuations....
The left hand doesnt know what the right needs....farmers néed to adapt to minimize stock loss, utilize there land far better, and are held back because of markets, shipping etc cant adapt. a week or so.....like getting the hay in a week or so different every 10 or 20 yrs.
We are not talking about long term reuitalisation of land due to climate change (which will kick this country in the butt big time eventually, but minor tweaking as the seasons do...which IS kicking our butts big time. Yes reutialisatio is required for long term planning , but tweeaking is needed in between
Murphy is looked on as the big evil..hes not hes your best friend...listen to him before hand and bloody plan around his advice, dont wait for him to say "told you so...what can go wrong , will go wrong at the worst possible moment"
I agree with the gist of that Steptoe. I think the likes of Kunst and Powerdownkiwi are not necessarily wrong in their views and they may well be right in the long term big picture stuff but in reality we have to play what is in front of us. Yes have an eye to the future but going out today and terraceing my hill medium hill country and growing spuds would be economic hari kari. In 50 years time it might be the sort of thing we need to do and that will play out over time. However for the time being sheep and cattle farming are the most economic use of land and we are constantly tweaking our systems to adapt to a whole range of issues and management practices.
CO, I absolutely concur with your comment about the learning of interesting theory on economic matters that are well outside my areas of expertise. Unfortuately this is proveing to be strangely addictive!
"I think the likes of Kunst and Powerdownkiwi are not necessarily wrong in their views" no m8 as far as Im concerned they are right...and things are as bad as what they say....
But it seems that unless one has a string of degrees after their name, any good old commonsense, yrs of hands on experience is bloody useless
Hell I can go on and on about this sort of thing...espec when it comes to DoC desk jockeys and conservation
I have at the moment 12 endangered re crown native kakariki out of the nest , disease free, pure breed...know what Another 7 pair of red and yellow crown sitting on between 6 and 10 eggs each (with a 80% rate of successful weaning) know what Im going to do with them....take a very sharp pair of scissors, take them down the back yard and chop their heads of...because that is DoC policy...hell they can have then for free...a small donation of a couple 100 Bucks would be appreciated to cover some cost would be nicethu....instead of spending 10s of thousands of dollars so called trans location on 1/4 the numbers I could raise in a yr...and they have a huge mortality rate to ..they censor that stuff out...yeah censor is the right word...And it is your tax dollars that pay for this BS
DoC say but they will not survive...well they have never studied it...and what if they dont, they are going to get their heads chopped of anyway...
That is how bloody stupid our so called elite brains are in this country...let Aussie have them.
Next to other issues I mentioned earlier, there is more to come. In a possible (likely) double dip recession scenario economic protectionism managed by other nations/ companies come in all forms and shapes. Precautionary measures need to be taken.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/4169026/Concern-over-NZ-halal-lamb
Be aware free trade and globalisation is coming to an end. Also because of in affordability, costs and increasingly environmental and political impacts, economies need to be wisely constructed into smaller units and more diversity. We need actions to become economically flexible and less depended - here in NZ especially in agriculture. Good valuable and sustainable international market places are increasingly found rather closer to home - "kiwipowerdown" - even to the good old days with more and bigger Farmer Markets.
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