Drought Update - Northland
Welcome to the weekly update from the Northland drought committee for the dairy, horticulture, sheep and beef sectors.
Current Situation:
- 0-35 mm rainfall reported in various areas over the last seven days. More in the Far North and Kerikeri areas than further south.
- Rain forecast for last night followed by showers with next week starting fine again.
- The Met Service indicates that the Southern Oscillation Index is similar to 2007 and if you have data from 2007 it may help in anticipating any weather events that impact on your property.
- The chart below shows rainfall patterns for April 1946, April 1983 and April year to date for the Dargaville area. Previous patterns provide hope that late April will see significant rain. (Source: NIWA).
- Facial eczema: Spore counts have eased in Maungatoroto but still high, Bay of Islands increased to moderate. Go to www.rd1.com or www.meatandwoolnz.com to get the latest spore counts and talk to your vets. Warm showers on warm ground could raise spore counts rapidly.
- Supplements: PKE is currently NOT available for spot purchases. Shipments are due late April – consider a contract to guarantee your supply.
- Water supply: Gets more serious each week. Lack of water or poor water quality will have a rapid effect on stock health and performance. Check stock regularly, especially if grazing off.
- Pasture growth rates are low at 8 - 20kgDM/ha/day. Pasture covers are 1100-1400 kgs DM/Ha
- Local body rates: Any farmers having difficulty paying their rates demands should contact their local council before the due date to make payment arrangements. Councils are understood to be helpful and late payment penalties can be avoided if arrangements are made
- Available assistance:
- The RST Ag Recovery Facilitators (now 4 available) provide 1:1 drought visits. To book a visit contact Helen Moodie on 0800 778 667.
Events:
Let your colleagues and clients know about these drought management events:
Rural Support Northland
20th April: Beat the drought blues. Whangaroa Fun Golf Day. 10am to 2pm. Sponsored by Rural Support Northland. For all drought affected farmers. Join us to relax and enjoy a fun 9 hole game of golf. Win prizes for interesting shots or just come and join us at the Whangaroa Golf Club for a delicious BBQ lunch at 1pm. RSVP: by 14 April so we can be sure to satisfy your appetites: 0800 778 667 (0800 RST Northland).
Dairy:
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For DairyNZ events in the upper North Island click here. |
Sheep and Beef:
If farmers in any area feel the need for additional support - with feed budgeting, financial budgeting or strategies to recover from the drought - please contact Malcolm McCallum 027 2315680. It's FREE.
For those who did not get to the seminars last month, drought packs with useful information are available.
For other drought strategies visit www.meatandwoolnz.com or Northland Regional Council website.
Key Messages:
Below are key messages to help you manage your way through the drought:
Dairy:
- Milk production is down 4% for the season, 50% daily and 47% monthly. 394 herds dried off in Northland compared to 43 at the same time last year.
- Protein levels are limiting for milking herds. In early lactation cows need a minimum of 16% protein. Options to mitigate this are as follows:
- Incorporating a high protein supplement such as soya bean meal, canola meal or dry distillers grain (DDG) into the diet (1.5kg of soya or 2kg of canola or DDG) will lift the protein percentage significantly when added to a diet of maize silage, PKE and pasture
- Urea is not the best option to increase protein levels in the diet. Urea is a non-protein source and research has shown that adding this to the diet will have little impact on percentage of protein in the diet and therefore on production
- Make sure you offer sufficient feed for dry cows to gain condition score. To gain 1CS over 60 days cows must be eating 8.8kgDM/cow/day for Jersey and 10.7kgDM/cow/day for Friesian
- When it rains: Focus should be placed on extending out round lengths by feeding supplements and appling nitrogen up to 40kgN/ha once pastures start growing. This will boost pasture growth and will allow you to reduce the use of supplement.
- Be aware of nitrate poisoning when it rains, especially in the new pastures. Parasites will be an issue when it rains due to the high number of worms under cow dung, so consider drenching your herd and young stock
- For more information visit www.dairynz.co.nz/drought
Case Study Farm - Roger and Jane Hutchings, Okaihau
This farm is 2 weeks ahead of most. The information below is a prompt on what you need to plan for on your farm.
Farm Situation: Collected 13th April 2010:
| Stocking Rate |
Kg MS/cow |
Kg MS/ha |
APC Kg DM/ha |
Rotation
Length (days) |
Growth rates
Kg DM/ha |
|
2 |
1.1 |
2.2 |
1,700 |
40 |
20 |
Targets - for calving (26 July calving date):
- Average pasture cover: 2100kgDM/ha
- Cow condition: 5 on all cows
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Targets - for 1 June:
Average pasture cover: 2000kgDM/ha
Cow condition: 5 for early calving cows and 4.5 for later calving cows |
Summary:
- Season to date 4.5% ahead due to milking 70 more cows. 189 000kgMS to date vs. start of season target of 240000kgMS
- Currently milking 390 cows with 75 dries on 230ha (all other stock off the milking platform). Milkers being offered/cow 4kg maize (plus maizemix), 5kg PKE and 5kg pasture. Dries being offered 2kg hay and 7kg pasture
- Peak cows 700 on 270ha
- 0mm rainfall in last week
- Applied N to 75% of farm in last 3 weeks and aiming to continue with nitrogen @35kgN to complete the whole farm
- Feed on hand: Hay 67.5 T, Maize 155TDMDM, PKE 120TDM (contracted).
What happened last week
- Pasture offered only at night and cows return to same paddock for supplement at the next morning's feeding
- New grass planted in early to mid-March showing good germination.
Plan for the next 2 weeks
- Herd tested on Wednesday and intend to drop numbers to 350. Will dry off all cows less than 4. SCC 250 000
- Regrassing last turnip paddocks with Bealey direct drilled and Kopu II and Tribute clovers broadcast (using treated seed)
- Continue to follow cows with nitrogen @35kgN
- Undersow patchy pastures by direct drilling @12kg/ha Ohau AR37 (75% perennial) so we can get more than one season out of the pasture. 40ha done to date. Still have 25ha to go
- Will update feed budget after significant rainfall
- Autumn fertiliser going on 70ha of milking platform and on run off.
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Sheep and Beef:
- Feed: It does not get any better, with some farms considering destocking further and others managing to hang on. Prioritise stock mobs again to ration feed: feed productive stock and destock any passengers.
- Budgets: It's repetitive BUT feed and cash flow budgets need to be reviewed. Realise that the real financial impact will occur next spring/early summer with probably fewer cattle to sell and lower lambing percentages. Extend cash flow budgets out to 12-18 months to identify full financial impact of the drought
- For more information visit www.meatandwoolnz.com
Case Study Farm - John Blackwell, Dargaville
What’s happening now: As at 13th April
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Destocking: Last week sold 18 bulls to works at 570kgsLwt. 50% yield when normally get 54% - a loss of 23 kgs and $78 per head. As these have not gained any weight in the last month, hindsight says they should have gone a month ago!
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NO rain by the end of April will require more reduction in feed demand. Will consider selling a number of 400kg bulls and/or the ewes.
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Pasture growth rates are still less than 10 kgDM/ha. Even after 60 days of no grazing, pasture cover is not good. Some length but pastures opening up especially around the many cracks. 32 hectares has been shut up for over 2 months and still has only 1500 kgDM cover.
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Pasture species: There is no kikuyu on the farm. Paspalum is growing but very stalky. The predominantly Rye pastures have a green tinge but no substance.
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Rotation length: I am aiming to maintain a long rotation with the cattle (around 60 days) to try and give the grass a chance to recover. This will be reviewed as silage runs out.
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Supplements: One week of pit silage left and 50 round bales.
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Ewe mating: The ewes are still getting silage but it’s going to run out in 1 week. The ram has been out for 3 weeks, so I’m trying to make the most of the period before the silage runs out.
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Rainfall: Nil! WHEN it rains the 32 hectares of saved pasture will be used as a supplement to spell other areas now being grazed - probably too hard.
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New pastures: Seed supplies are slow in arriving so planned regrassing for last week has been delayed a week. Treated seed seems to be the safe bet this year. It’s certainly cheap insurance from my perspective.
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Water is becoming the major issue. My dams are holding out, but people nearby are being forced to suck water out of rivers to keep going. Dams are drying up quickly, even when they are not being used, due to evaporation. This seems to be happening right around the area. Could be related to the groundwater levels being so low. |
Horticulture:
- Tamarillo growers have been affected by drought conditions from Awanui through to the Whangarei area.
- General effects are; Decreased crop total volume by up to 50% due to lack of fruit set; fruit drop and tree death; decreased fruit sizing; decreased fruit quality; trees sucumbing to fungal and bacterial diseases due to stress; tree death due to extreme stress and exacerbation of tree death due to Liberibacter bacterium due to stress
- For more information visit www.hortnz.co.nz.
Useful Links:
- To view the previous Northland drought updates click on the links below:
- To read more about managing the drought in Northland click on the links below:
Contacts:
If you require any further information on the Northland drought, please contact the relevant person below:
    
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