Southern Dairy Hub Has Weathered Southland’s Wet Winter

Greg Delaney, the farm’s acting general manager, said the Southern Dairy Hub had entered winter with sufficient pasture after choosing to dry off at targeted average pasture-cover levels rather than seek additional milk production at the end of the previous season.

The Wallacetown property is operated as a research and development farm for the Southern Dairy Development Trust. Its spring rotation plan was designed to make efficient use of feed during winter, and staff followed it closely as rainfall continued for six weeks.

“The rain had been just relentless,” Delaney said. He added that the conditions had affected the farm’s employees as well as its operations, but said the worst of the weather appeared to have passed. He attributed the farm’s position partly to the planning required of a demonstration operation.

The hub manages 750 cows in two herds. One is described as standard, while the other, known as the future herd, is used to test alternative feeding and management methods. Rather than feeding every cow in the same way, the farm provided targeted supplements and shed feeding to animals considered at risk.

Delaney said farms without contingency plans or adequate feed reserves were facing shortages as cows entered the milking stage. In his account, feed availability was the main difficulty for many farmers during the winter. Southern Dairy Hub had been able to preserve its supplies by limiting additional feeding to animals that needed it.

Chris Dillon, Federated Farmers Southland’s provincial president and national arable chair, said the final two weeks of September had brought particularly severe conditions. Dairy farmers had experienced pasture damage and weaker grass growth. Arable farmers had only occasional short periods in which to apply fertiliser and spray crops, although much of the region’s arable production is planted in autumn rather than spring.

The government’s adverse-event designation makes tax relief, special payments from the Ministry of Social Development and other assistance available. Environment Southland reported strong compliance with winter-grazing rules despite the weather. The council received 35 complaints about possible breaches, compared with 77 in the previous season; all but one had been resolved satisfactorily, according to acting compliance manager Brad Thomas.