Farmers still battling to beat drought

Press, 29 December 1988, Page 3

Farmers still battling to beat drought

By

NEIL CLARKSON

Parched hills, barren of both grass and sheep, are hallmarks of the struggle South Canterbury farmers face in the worst drought in decades.

The struggle is now 12 months old and the worst is likely to come. Winter rains never came and'spring growth was poor. A dry spring wore on into a dry summer and farmers were left without enough feed to maintain stock numbers. Old ewes were sent to the works for slaughter to reduce numbers. Prices in some cases were so low the farmers were billed by the works. Underweight lambs were weaned early and sent to the works, often for poor prices. Some farmers have opted to send stock south to greener pastures to see through the drought. They are expected back in late February or early March but some farmers believe some of the estimated two million sheep will not return. Low rainfall has meant little or no silage production. The drought crisis of summmer seems likely to turn to a feed crisis in winter.

“We didn’t get a lot of rain in the winter,” said Mr Gary Flynn, of Timaru, an agricultural consultant with MAFTech, the consultancy and research division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

“That was when most people started to get concerned.” Warm spring temperatures came but there was not enough moisture in the soil.

“It was too dry for decent pasture growth. Spring growth is normally good quality feed which is what you require when you have ewes lambing and cows calving. “Their feed requirements go up

considerably.” Poor pasture growth left many farms with an overstocking problem which needed immediate attention. Farmers faced either buying in feed, sending stock to the works, or sending them south to richer pasture. Demand for feed pushed its price , up — a cost farmers could illafford. Now, as the drought wears on, farmers are starting to send their breeding ewes to the works. Breeding ewes are a farmer’s capital base; their production potential. Loss of breeding ewes will mean lower lamb production next year and another year of poor returns. Farmers must either rebuild their flock of breeding ewes or find the money to buy in new stock. Some facing the cost of buying in new breeding ewes may opt, at least in part, to plant cereal crops. De-stocking began as early as May. In September more sheep went to the works as pastures dried further and farmers faced the difficulties of feeding their lambs and ewes. October was the busiest month as the drought began to bite and farmers realised their properties would be unable to carry many stock units over the summer. “Stock numbers are quite low for this time of the year,” said Mr Flynn. “The drought area is getting a bit wider now. More people are going through the same exercise now.

“For those farmers who have destocked quite substantially, basically

they have got breeding ewes on hand now, and possibly hoggets down south grazing. “They are down as far as they want to see themselves go, as far as their capital base is concerned. "Farmers have sold a lot of stock early at prices less than they would normally expect to receive. “Normally they would just be starting to get into selling now when lambs are getting to a bigger size.” Farmers face these diminished returns yet are getting no reductions in costs. “Debt servicing and all their fixed costs just keep rolling in.” Farmers who have slashed stock numbers, perhaps even eating into their breeding ewe flocks, have little hope of building numbers up again quickly. “If they wanted to get back up to normal stock numbers by the late autumn period, then obviously they have got nowhere near enough money to get back in stock.” With two dry months in the offing, there is little farmers can do. “All their efforts are really revolving around minimising losses. “We have always been pushing the line that people have to make decisions early. So that if their decision is to sell stock they do so when it is in reasonable condition instead of waiting until they are in such poor condition, nobody wants them. “There is every possibility that in some instances what you send into the works you will get a bill for. That is particularly old ewes.”