Crisis as farms turn to dust
The Government will hold a crisis meeting with farmers on Tuesday, as the embattled agriculture sector braces for another parched month.
Throughout the country farms are turning to dust.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have already been lost through a downturn in production.
And it is not just the farming community that is parched. Residents in coastal areas around the country have had water supply companies running ragged, as tanks run dry.
Waikato is the driest it has been for more than 100 years - this is the first time an official drought has been declared.
North Canterbury and southern and coastal Wairarapa have also been officially declared drought areas. Farmers, desperate to protect the breeding stock, are resorting to slaughtering old worthless animals rather than pay the price for a place on a stock truck to the freezing works.
Mass graves are being dug on the hardest hit farms to cope with the euthanasia process.
%26quot;If the dry weather continues, the situation will become very serious in some areas,%26quot; said Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton, who will meet groups including Federated Farmers, Fonterra and the banking sector in Wellington on Tuesday.
Federated Farmers national president Charlie Pederson said the situation in some areas was the worst it had been since the 1980s.
%26quot;What is different about this is that it was predicted for the eastern side of the country but it has hit the western side really hard.
%26quot;These farmers in the Waikato are in despair because they don%26#39;t know what has really hit them. It is a hell of a shock for them because it is not an event that happened in their lifetimes.%26quot;
Mr Pederson said though most farmers were eternal optimists, the conditions now had come as a shock.
There were farming families who did not own their own land that were struggling to put food on the table.
There were suggestions that Winz was looking at emergency bailout benefits for the worst hit. Mr Pedersen said government aid would be essential for some.
But the main focus was on keeping the money-making cows and sheep alive.
Environment Waikato chairman Peter Buckley admitted that gaining the attention of the Government was partly behind the drought alert.
%26quot;We really are in the lap of the gods now,%26quot; he said.
Stock feed contractors Colton Bros, from Martinborough, said the brutal summer had left farmers in a desperate scramble for feed - feed that was in dire short supply.
Company director Jim Alpe said that in Wairarapa%26#39;s hardest-hit area, in the south, there was no hay, silage or baleage available at all for those trying to keep stock alive.
Feed that was available to buy would cost gold, he said. %26quot;Reality is people cannot afford to pay the asking price.
A conventional round bail of baleage that may have cost $80 or $90 is now going to about $130 or $140.%26quot;
It is the same scenario being played out around the country with the exception of Northland, which has had plenty of rain and good grass growth.
Elsewhere though, the grass just did not grow in the spring so there was hardly any hay cut.
This meant farmers had to use their winter supplies now to get breeding stock through the worst of it. That would leave the cupboards bare when needed later in the season.
It was the worst season for local farming that Mr Alpe had seen in 40 years.
%26quot;If you have gold, you might get through otherwise it is a case of selling stock and just weathering the conditions till the heavens open. And who knows when that will be. It is a tough one on the back of a drought year last year.%26quot;
Federated Farmers has set up an 0800 hotline for farmers in peril, and the Government is expected to announce early next week what aid it can offer as a short-term bailout till the rain falls.
