B+LNZ is encouraging farmers along the east coast of both Islands to start planning for drought as recent Nor West winds have left soil moisture levels depleted.
Dan Brier, B+LNZ’s General Manager Farming Excellence, says it has been a challenging spring, with farmers along the east coast experiencing very dry conditions while farmers in other parts of the country are dealing with on-going wet weather.
He is recommending farmers along the east coast to start planning for drought and consider strategies such as early weaning, selling trading stock at lighter weights and buying in supplementary feed before demand puts upward pressure on prices.
Brier says good planning and early decision-making are critical when farmers are dealing with drought conditions.
He suggests farmers set trigger dates and if it hasn’t rained by that date, then certain actions need to be implemented.
“This could, for example, mean early-weaning five-year ewes and getting those ewes off the property and sold on a higher schedule in December or selling a line of cows and calves- stock that would struggle in a very dry summer.”
Brier says it is important farmers focus on protecting the reproductive performance of their capital stock to help minimise the impact of a drought.
“This is where tools such as Body Condition Scoring is so valuable as you are partitioning limited feed resources into the stock that need it the most.”
He says B+LNZ has a number of resources on Knowledge Hub to help support decision making. This includes a drought tool kit and strategies used by farmers in previous droughts. B+LNZ’s AI tool Bella can also help put plans together to help farmers get through this season. www.AskBella.co.nz