Raining a liquid tonic of confidence

Widespread rain may have inundated houses, ruined camping trips and caused some business loss, but for many North Island farmers, it’s been a liquid tonic of confidence.

“Full marks to the MetService for their regular and thorough updates,” says David Rose, Federated Farmers adverse events spokesperson.

“They said rain would come in January, just like with past La Nina’s in 1976 and 1989, so this looks very promising.

“While pasture and winter crops were hit hard by drought-like conditions over recent months, this rain will do wonders as we head into late summer and early autumn.

“This rain is truly a beautiful sight for farmers in the North Island, so it’s a shame we don’t have the infrastructure in many parts to store it.

“While life will come back to hard hit pasture the damage was already done. Many farmers will be heavily reliant upon supplementary feed due to winter crops being affected by dry conditions.

“It’s why drought declarations will remain in place as farmers can’t make up for lost time. It’s just a biological reality.

“I need to also stress these drought declarations haven’t triggered cash handouts to farmers. The last time I checked, well less than 100 farmers were receiving rural assistance payments and that’s out of tens of thousands of farmers.

“What the drought declarations have done is to fund expert advisory services to help farmers and their families plan a way forward. It also means there is some leeway with deadlines for filing tax returns.

“I’m checking in with affected provinces but from what I’ve had reported to me, the rain is getting a ten out of ten from those on the land,” Mr Rose concluded.