New Zealand: Worried farmers are planning for unusually dry conditions through to early winter

Hawke’s Bay farmer Matt Wade says the unusually dry autumn has put him in a worse position than this at time last year when the region was emerging from a severe summer drought. “Normally you can bank on rainfall in April. We are green tinged at the moment but there’s no growth,” Wade says. Farmers in eastern parts of the country are facing an unusually dry autumn, with the potential for a drier winter, according to The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) forecasts. Canterbury dairy farmer Haden Usher said the big concern in the region was dry winter support blocks where winter crops were looking “pretty depressed”. Farmers were having to work out how they would get through winter and would probably have to pay more for baleage due to demand, Usher said. Niwa meteorolgist Ben Noll said the La Nina weather phenomenon had brought unusually dry conditions to the eastern parts of the country for this time of year with forecasts of either lower or average ...