5 June 2020: Regular update for rural communities in NZ's 2020 drought. Please share with farmers, growers, lifestylers, hobby farmers, and rural professionals in your networks.
Recovering from droughthttps://www.dairynz.co.nz/business/adverse-events/drought/drought-recovery-from-early-winter-until-calving Only exceptional pasture growth will fill the extreme pasture deficits some are facing. But there are still opportunities to improve the situation in time for start of calving. Compared with some winters, a few things are more
favourable than normal. Drier conditions allow high utilisation of feed, less pugging and good opportunity for pasture re-growth. Smart management is required to fill this deficit. Anything less is likely to take you down a risky path towards below par conditions at calving, higher costs and lower cash flow. It’s all about matching feed supply to demand as best you can, but that’s not always straightforward. Getting in good shape for calvingNorth Island dairy farmers face a wide variety of situations this winter, due to the uneven break from the prolonged drought. Use this flowchart to assess your situation now against three key indicators - pasture cover, body condition score and availability of supplement. Follow this through to key actions tailored to your situation. For more, call 0800 4 DAIRYNZ (0800 4 324 7969) or click the image below for the full flowchart.
Lifestylers and farmers:Do you have your feed plan through to spring?Call the free winter feed planning service to talk through your options to farm through to spring. This service is open to all stock owners, from lifestyle blocks to the largest stations, anywhere in New Zealand. You do not have to be drought affected. Call now: · 0800 BEEFLAMB (0800 23 33 52)
· 0800 4 DairyNZ (0800 43 24 79 69) Once you have identified your needs with a feed plan, order in food as soon as you can. Feed coordination availableIf you are running out of feed choices, try the feed coordination service sooner rather than later. Four coordinators are set up nationally to help connect up farmers with available feed sources. While they may not be able to find all the feed you need, they are working with the primary sector groups and Trusts to help farmers and livestock owners in each region. Register with them through the 0800 numbers above, or directly here: I Need Feed · If you have feed to donate register here: I Have Feed to Donate
· You can sell feed directly to farmers here: Feed Noticeboard - AgriHQ Where to buy feed- Feed Noticeboard - AgriHQ . Check back regularly as a lot of sellers are active now.
- Your feed merchants. Some feed can take up to 12 weeks to arrive in NZ.
- Trademe. Check the reputation of the seller and their products.
- Your local facebook, farmer or lifestyle facebook groups.
"It’s such a relief knowing we’ve made the right call, and I don’t have the stress of trying to find non-existent feed for hungry animals through winter."
Making informed decisions now:
Kate Luff"We farm 25 acres in Central Hawke’s Bay. Despite keeping all our baleage this year, I looked at stock numbers (including lambs due to start arriving in June), and available feed, and had a sinking feeling that it did not look good. At that stage feed prices were skyrocketing and feed was getting hard to obtain. "But I still felt like I was just guessing if we had enough feed for winter. "So I looked into the feed budgeting service and called the 0800 number. That evening Mark Harris called me back and within the hour I knew exactly how many days feed I had on hand. "The spreadsheet that Mark sent to me enabled me to play with the stock numbers and work out what we
could carry through winter. In our case the right decision was to sell 80% of our cattle, based on good factual information."
What happens when the rain finally comes?- All the dead stalky high DM material gets flattened down to ground level where it the becomes unavailable to stock – because they can’t get at it, or it is rotting away very quickly – so feed availably drops markedly.
- Where the drought has been severe, this will still be the situation for some time – at least three weeks – because the plants will be completely burnt off and dead. Recovery and regrowth has to come from the
roots.
The obvious thing to do?- Once this recovery is well underway you'll see fresh green grass on all paddocks. It might seem you should get the stock onto this right away, right? WRONG. This is not a good thing to do, from both the stock and pasture viewpoints.
- Stock-wise, the sudden massive change in diet is harmful. Over the past weeks, the rumen has built up a huge population of micro-organisms, able specifically to break
down, process and digest the dry stalky material that has been most of their diet.
- These micro-organisms aren't great at processing the very different lush green material now being ingested, and it will take a bit of time for the appropriate ones to build up and take over. Feeding hay over the transition period is recommended.
Bad pasture effects - Bad pasture effects come from too intensive, too early grazing.
- Regrowth will be coming from the roots. Vigorous and productive plant growth will not get
going until a reasonable leaf canopy has formed and the plants are actively photosynthesising. This will be greatly inhibited if the leaves are being nipped off as soon as they are formed, so the longer recovering paddocks can be left before grazing, the better.
- The obvious way to slow the rotation is feeding supplement. You may well be very reluctant to do this with limited reserves remaining. However the best and cheapest method of increasing the winter feed supply is to grow more grass and carry it forward. In this scenario it is quite probable that one bale of hay fed to lengthen the rotation will result in an extra two-to-three bale equivalents being grown.
More information: https://www.grazing.nz/articles/animal-health/after-a-drought/
Hawke's Bay lifestyler feed run LIFESTYLE FEED RUN THIS WEEKEND: The Regional Council and the Rural Advisory Group are organising another feed run for small block holders. There is high quality feed (Timothy Hay bales) available suitable for
all stock, and horses. People can order a maximum of 15 bales per person to keep it equitable, and need to have their own transport to pick-up feed at the A & P Showgrounds. To apply go to the Regional Council's drought hub, click on the lifestyle button and fill in the application form. www.hbrc.govt.nz/environment/farmers-hub/drought-crisis-hub More information for HB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/240026230568478/
What financial support is available?Inland RevenueTalk to your advisor and IR about tax flexibility and income assistance options Phone Inland Revenue on 0800 473 566, Monday to Friday 8am-8pm, Saturday 9am—lpm. MSD – Work and Income- COVID-19 Wage Subsidies support
employers, including sole traders, impacted by COVID-19. Go to https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/covid-19/wage-subsidy/index.html or call Work and Income. - Special needs grants include for filling your household water tank. - Rural Assistance Payments, equivalent to the Jobseeker Support benefit, if farmers are in hardship for you / your family (separate from your business costs and assets). Phone Work and Income on 0800 559 009 or your Rural Support Trust for Rural Assistance Payments. Rural Support Trust Farm Business Advice Support Fund- With a focus on debt management, the fund will provide up to $6,000 to pay for financial or business advice from an independent consultant. - Managed by Rural Support Trusts and agreed with ASB, ANZ, BNZ, Heartland Bank, Rabobank, SBS Bank, TSB and Westpac. - The RSTs will provide up to $3000, depending on an assessment of need, and the relevant bank will match that dollar for dollar. Ask your RST for more information 0800 787 254 (0800 RURAL HELP) http://www.rural-support.org.nz/what-we-do/Financial
All the links for COVID-19 for primary industries are here: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/protection-and-response/coronavirus/ Funding for organisations that support women and girlsOn Sunday 31 May the Minister for Women, Hon Julie Anne Genter, announced a NZ$1,000.000 fund to support organisations that support women
and girls in Aotearoa New Zealand as part of the Government’s COVID-19 response. The fund is for NGOs who provide services or support to women and girls which are experiencing an increased demand for services or a shortfall of funding due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a one-off grant to support organisations in the short term, and where they are unable to get other government support for the same purposes as those they are applying for. Organisations can apply for $5,000 to $50,000 per funding round. First round applications can be made between 1 and 15 June 2020; funding will be available to the successful applicants by the end of June or early July. Please note applications for the first funding round must be
completed and submitted by 1 pm, 15 June 2020. More information, including eligibility and assessment criteria, is available on the Ministry for Women’s website (https://women.govt.nz/news/covid-19-and-women/covid-19-community-fund).
Help is available: whether your challenge is finance, farming advice, health... try chatting with your local Rural Support Trust on 0800 787 254 (0800 RURAL HELP) www.rural-support.org.nz You might want to check in about yourself, a friend, a neighbour or employee. Their services are free and confidential. Key contact information and support MPI adverse events: www.MPI.govt.nz/drought
Inland Revenue’s Emergency Helpline: 0800 473 566
Work & Income General Enquiries: 0800 559 009
DAIRYNZ: 0800 4 324 7969
HORTNZ: 0508 467 869
Beef and Lamb NZ: 0800 733 466
Fonterra: 0800 656 568
Rural Women New Zealand: 0800 256 467
Federated Farmers: www.fedfarm.org.nz or call 0800 327 646
Farmstrong: www.farmstrong.co.nz
National Depression Initiative: www.depression.org.nz or call 0800 111 757
The LowDown for youth: www.thelowdown.co.nz
Youthline: www.youthline.co.nz or call 0800 376 633
Healthline: Free advice from trained registered nurses call 0800 611 116
Alcohol Drug Helpline: 0800 787 797
Gambling Helpline: 0800 654 655 Share this link for people to sign up to this newsletter directly: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/18E3859FDF24CDBF Share it on facebook:
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