Bill Webb Feed Solutions Outlook

To say this spring has been challenging for everyone involved in agriculture in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato is an understatement.

Between September and early-October there were 36 days of rain with only two-and-a-half anything like dry enough for us to get machinery into paddocks to make silage. This has been the worst unusual weather pattern I can remember.

Because of the wet weather, maize cultivation is now three weeks late so we are changing to short-maturing varieties, which unfortunately have lower yields. However, they do mean we can harvest around the same time as normal and so we’ve pasture re-sown ready for winter grazers.

Seed companies will hold the seed we have already bought and paid for this year, but won’t give any refund so we’ll be paying for two seasons’ worth of seed in one year.

All the rain has been hard on farmers and on stock too. Cows need sun for their health and grass needs sun to grow and harden up and increase sugar levels. Milk production in the Bay of Plenty is down about 10 to 15 per cent. And in the Hauraki Plains it’s down about six per cent as a direct result of the wet weather.

Feeding supplements

Feeding supplements through the coming summer and autumn to keep cows in milk and good condition for as long as possible may be an option some farmers choose to make up for low production now. However, they need to be mindful high energy supplements like maize silage might be hard to find as not as much maize is being grown this season.

Some farmers who normally grow maize are flagging it this year because they don’t want to take the risk of not being able to get pasture re-established early enough once the maize is off. Contractors, including ourselves, won’t be planting as many hectares this year either as not as much maize sold last season. Maize silage is too much of an expensive and risky crop to grow if you can’t be sure of sales.

However, having said that, we do have well-wrapped, milking quality silage still available and plan to have more throughout the summer to assist farmers with any shortfalls that might arise.

Weed risk

The combination of too much rain, too little sunshine and stock pugging pastures has set up ideal conditions for weeds to take over, so now is the time to monitor pasture carefully and spray for weeds to prevent buttercup, pennyroyal, willow weed and others getting established. Older grass species and kikuyu, which have low feed values, need to be controlled to allow more modern, high energy grasses to dominate.

The adverse impacts of the prolonged wet weather will be felt eight to 10 months later because cows that aren’t fully fed now will likely have problems getting in-calf.

Farmers and contractors need to be planning ahead in an effort to mitigate as much as possible, the effects of this very wet spring on their businesses. It’s not easy because just what is ahead is unpredictable.

Last summer all the forecasts were for a drought, which we didn’t get. Now we’ve had an exceptionally wet spring, I wonder what this summer will bring? Nature has a way of balancing itself out. I just hope that balancing act won’t be too extreme.