Drought sucks the life out of farming

The grass is so low on Andrew and Nikki Duncan's farm behind Taihape that they were asked facetiously by a visitor if they were farming for mice reports Stuff. They are in the centre of a drought-stricken patch that stretches from Kawhatau, near Mangaweka, north to the big stations on  the Napier-Taihape road. For travellers on the highway barely a kilometre away a drought is hard to imagine. The threat of rain seems to constantly hang over the hills and the paddocks appear green. But the farms are in a sheltered shadow and the rain stays on the hills. The Duncans received a few spatterings that added up to miserly 28 millimetres in April and so far this month have got 27mm, almost all of that in one downpour last week. It is the second successive year they have missed out on the damp autumn they need to grow the grass that will take their stock through winter. The country is so cold in winter that no grass will grow. They have some green feed on their small area of flats and that is it. All Mr Duncan can do is reduce his stock numbers and hope rain comes soon and the winter is mild. Last year's drought was widespread across most of the country and had largely broken by now. But this dry spell is different. It arrived in late summer and has stayed on. And it is only in seemingly haphazard patches of countryside. With the drought comes other problems. In the Hawke's Bay patch there's an area that after three years has become hydrophobic - the soil actually repels water. And then there are the grass grubs and the crickets. Thousands of black field crickets have made their home in the cracked soil, venturing out to munch on the pasture. It is estimated they have taken 30 per cent of the grass that is struggling to survive the drought. Farmers who have traditionally relied on their own experienced eye to assess feed covers are doing formal feed budgeting, using special gauges to record dry matter availability and matching that to stock numbers. When the feed supply sinks to trigger levels, stock is sold. This has seen them avoid financial and animal health disasters that were first seen three years ago. Some farmers are getting through by buying in maize silage - luckily there is plenty around this year after growers lost their dairy farming customers in the wake of the low milk payout. However, the selling of capital stock has continued and projections are for a further fall in national sheep numbers this year.