regolith
Well-known member
To put things into perspective - the whole of the North Island was a solid block of red on the "moisture deficit" maps back in March, but while locals are saying this is the worst drought for 70 years, my farm is in what we call a "summer safe" area - if there's rain in summer, it usually falls on us. So I've farmed through a worse dry spell than this within the last five years, in another part of the country. But for locals it was the worst they'd seen, for some other areas of the North Island it was far worse than here and although most have had rain by now, there's still some that are anticipating a winter with very low grass covers and no chance of growing any once the temperatures drop.
As I recall, we had good rain the last week in December. 15 ml around mid-January with drizzly days of .5 - 1 ml around the same time. Then nothing till early February - 30 ml. Then nothing till 18th March when the drought broke with over four inches of rain that day. That band of rain didn't extend much further north and the upper north island had to wait a while longer for good rain. With unusually warm autumn temperatures, grass growth in April would have been double what I recorded last year.
Calves on 27 Feb. They've got hay, and dry feed in the trailer but don't look to be growing much, though they're being fed too well to clean up the hay.
A Manawatu view about five minutes drive from my farm, 11 March:
My cows on the same day:
Paddock 1. Raised a lot of comment from passers-by.
And the neighbours on two sides of paddock 1:
104 mm rain fell on 18th March, then another three ml over the following day (about four inches altogether). The farm turned green again overnight but it takes at least ten days to start building up grass ahead of the cows.
31 March paddock 1
paddock 2
paddock 15
neighbours on three sides of paddock 1:
the green paddock in the foreground is another dairy farm, with rough pasture on its boundary. The farm beyond that paddock is a sheep farm, the dairy is rotational grazing the sheep are not.
early May
As I recall, we had good rain the last week in December. 15 ml around mid-January with drizzly days of .5 - 1 ml around the same time. Then nothing till early February - 30 ml. Then nothing till 18th March when the drought broke with over four inches of rain that day. That band of rain didn't extend much further north and the upper north island had to wait a while longer for good rain. With unusually warm autumn temperatures, grass growth in April would have been double what I recorded last year.
Calves on 27 Feb. They've got hay, and dry feed in the trailer but don't look to be growing much, though they're being fed too well to clean up the hay.
A Manawatu view about five minutes drive from my farm, 11 March:
My cows on the same day:
Paddock 1. Raised a lot of comment from passers-by.
And the neighbours on two sides of paddock 1:
104 mm rain fell on 18th March, then another three ml over the following day (about four inches altogether). The farm turned green again overnight but it takes at least ten days to start building up grass ahead of the cows.
31 March paddock 1
paddock 2
paddock 15
neighbours on three sides of paddock 1:
the green paddock in the foreground is another dairy farm, with rough pasture on its boundary. The farm beyond that paddock is a sheep farm, the dairy is rotational grazing the sheep are not.
early May
