NZ Drought.

[Campbell]

North Island officially declared a drought today. Driest Waikato for over 50 years, can't be much milk about. Is JD Kidd [from the dark side] around to comment?

 

[Walterp]

Aren't there huge irrigation projects in the North Island these days?


[Walterp scratches his head and mutters to himself: "Someone's bound to start up a climate change thread now..."]

 

[le bon paysan]

watching the cricket the other night, wellington has 20 days water left or something along those lines.

 

[DairyGrazing]

All the boreholes on the South Island were going full tit when i left two weeks ago. A lot of the schemes have been on restrictions for a month and will be until it rains on the West Coast.

 

[Johnny400]

I follow this guy on twitter. Defiantly dry!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/8427883/Drought-A-farmers-daily-struggle

 

[topground]

Read Freddy Lawler.
http://flinnz.blogspot.co.uk/
He talks about the drought in his most recent blog 6th March. A good read as always although he seems to be slowing down a bit.

 

[JD-Kid]

all north island classed as in Drought and west coast of south island wanting to be the same ... yea a few kiwis on this side of the hill are saying WTF 2 days with out rain a the coasters are saying it's dry

had an add up the other day since the start of spring(sept) had just under 6 inchs bit under an 1inch a month realy over summer got up to around 32-35 dC great if heading but crap if livestock farmeing

there will be a few people takeing water out of rivers cut off fish and game go a tad nuts if the fish die ..

talk of rain on the coast (west coast) over weekend may get some here on monday so i'm being a bit ballys and drilling short term feed in full contract about 250 dollars a Ha 40 odd Ha's just being trashed in to burnt off paddocks say 10 K's worth , weather patter is starting to change more lows in the system but i would like to see the highs move higher up the island

the iceing on the cake is we are ment to see more years like this we may become more like ozzie if that happens so water storage will be a big factor

out look ummmmm cow cockys drying off early in some areas maybe a shortage of grazeing over winter .. stock prices dropped due to animals being sold off , lambing i think will be down due to ewes being lighter alot of paddocks may have some damage ..
next thing is a hard rain leading to flooding is our biggest risk

some farmers getting a tad cranky and talk in papers for farmers to be open and talk to health care groups etc
it will rain has before and it will be dry again just one of the joys of farming

 

[FonterraFarmer]

JD-Kid, up here we have had weather like this in the 2000's, the 90's, the 80's, the 70's, the 60's, remember the summer of 68, SFA rain in Jan/Feb/March and then it rained in April....so this weather pattern isn't new (sorry Walter, there goes your "climate change BS!!!") The Pacific ocean has a big part to play in our rainfall, and this year it seems that the rain that we might get in NZ, has actually gone to the east coast of Australia instead.Also Norfork Island has missed out on rain too.Don't talk about "Fish and Game" either Got to go...Moo cows want something to eat....

 

[JD-Kid]

whats the green stuff in the pic?? down north otago i had to sell the JD tractor i had due to the sheep trying to eat the paint off it .. 88/89 got that dry down there had to staple the stamps on the letters and sticky tape to close them ..

have had a few dryer years here place burns off kinda eazy tho akaroa hills always have a gray look to them during summer
seem to recall a few more dry spells in the 80's 90's in north otago not too bad early 2000 just when we left was dry

always rains tho so hope fully something this weekend but not looking like it will break it tho .... maybe if we get 1 000 000 nude pic's on facebook it will rain

funny thing is while in YFC years ago in NO used to have a drought busters party to please the rain god's i can recall one time it was almost called off due to flooding and another time we thought some one was takeing the pi55 walking in soaking wet it was pouring down , yer think theres hugs and kisses on new years well this was 1000% better

 

[FonterraFarmer]

"Jim"says were going to get some rain this weekend... the only thing green in the pictures is the mailbox!!! Just maybe if we drink a few crates of Speights , it might rain.

 

[JD-Kid]

I can handle the speights HAHAHA got 12 Ha's drilled away for a meeting about trees tomorrow hope fully it gets in to rain mode ... south island field days later in the week look at new toys ..
"Jim" better get it right think the old weather rock is better at calling the weather .. waiting for a book off fishpond "rain dances high prices and SOE's makeing a profit " think it's a joke book tho

 

[azimuth]

let us know when you do get some rain,,,,we could let you have some,but its getting it to you thats the problem,,,

 

[FonterraFarmer]

Got 14mm today....but need more ("Jim" is our local telly weather presenter , has a quite a way with words on TVNZ 1, if you want a "better looking" weather forecast you have to use 3!)

 

[JD-Kid]

14 mm ... think we may have got 2 mm ment to rain a bit over night and tomorrow
yea on 1 yea don't watch jim yer watch the maps one of the weather girls years ago all i think they said bla bla bla

 

[JD-Kid]

light rain now the bulk of it passed over got about 35mm , if a change in the weather pattern and a few follow ups maybe eneff to get things going heading in to winter in a few months

just need to get more in the ground over the next few days to get a bit more feed for later winter spring

don't know how other areas have got on don't think up north have had a lot tho

 

[kiwi pom]

Had about 25 mm so far in south canterbury seems to be clearing up now though

Saw on the news last night the government say this drought could cost the economy 2 billion.

I wonder what it will do to the global milk price?

 

[JD-Kid]

just feed the hounds and another 7mm still raining here but stick out quite a bit so could be catching more coming up the coast

yea it will cost a fair bit early on with milking ,lamb weights and some fruit veg etc crop's on dry land areas may have been knocked back , next thing maybe drop in wool also lambing % if ewes in lighter order some areas may have sold off some captal stock so could lead to lower over all lamb numbers for the 13-14 season

there could also be a higher % of drys in dairy herds

good thing if there is an ok amount of rain it's still warm so growth will be quite high in saying that it was 31dC a few days ago now around 12 dC

 

[FonterraFarmer]

Ranged from10 to 35mm up this way, all up we have had 18mm, but even over short distances the rainfall has been variable, but we need some more.Better start getting the grass seed in

 

[Campbell]

Just had a signal from family member living in AKL. Two minor earthquakes yesterday, but some rain at last!

 

[FonterraFarmer]

Yes, 17 March , 3.1 at 4.01pm and 3.9 at 4.05pm at Rangitoto Island. Personaly anything under 4.0 is a non event. I guess the Jafa's noticed the earthquake when they spilt their coffee!