Farmers ride out drought and backlog

Press, 16 February 1978, Page 1

Farmers ride out drought and backlog

North Canterbury sheep and cattle farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with critical drought conditions compounded by the difficulty of getting their surplus stock to the works.

There was growing concern by fanners about the dry conditions and the t shortage of feed, said the North Canterbury senior farm adviser of the Ministry of Agriculture (Mr G. D. Miller).

Farmers were trying to ride the drought out, but even if a lot of rain did fall now, damage had already been done, he said. There had been a loss of body weight in stock and lambing would be affected by the poor condition of some of the ewes.

Mr J. D. Caldwell, a sheep and cattle farmer at Cheviot, said that there had been no effective rain in the district since October.

Even though there had been about an inch of rain about 10 days ago—which had slightly eased the situation—no feed had resulted yet.

It was several years since the area had suffered from such a severe drought, but the people still holding surplus stock for the freezing works were the worst off, he said.

While culled ewes usually go to the works in October, November and December, they will not be accepted until April this killing season. Fanners in the area have tried to conserve feed for their stock but most of this has now tun out. Little local hay has been made. Bales from Southland will cost them about $2.40.

But although there was a serous shortage of feed, from now on there would be increasing supplies of grain and sheep nuts available, Mr Miller said.

Some farmers of the meat and wool section of North Canterbury Federated Farmers described conditions as critical at their meeting yesterday. The chairman (Mr M. R. Murchison) said that in many areas of the province the drought was as bad as he could remember. An Omihi member, Mr J. J. McLean, reported that there had been no spring growth there, and farmers had considered asking the Government for relief. They had not been able to

make hay; and the Government relief assistance, which at present subsidised the cartage of hay from Southland at $lO a ton, was not very helpful. Trucks that were taking stock from Oxford and Darfield were bringing hay back into the area to supplement feed supplies, said Mr D. M. Foster. “The situation for winter is absolutely hopeless unless there is heavy rain before autumn,” he said. Farmers were talking of reducing stock numbers because of the problem of getting their stock to freezing works and also the need to limit the use of superphosphate, Mr R. Steele told the meeting. According to Lincoln College meteorological observations the rainfall last month was 43.2 mm, compared with an average of 56mm.

The combination of high temperatures, high wind, and low rainfall caused evaporation to increase 49mm over January, 1977. to 238.2 mm.