With pasture levels low across the North Island, and no rain in sight, many are turning to supplementary feed to tide hungry stock over.

Palm Kernel is the go-to supplement for most, with contractors reporting excess demand outstripping supply.

Stephen Swap, of J. Swap Contractors in Auckland, says he’s never seen this kind of interest before.

“It’s going out faster than it’s coming in.

We’re going basically to capacity, we don’t want to get too far out with our deliveries, we don’t like to be five, six seven days.

For most people it’s too far away.”

Stephen Swap says poor weather conditions in countries which export Kernel, like Malaysia, have delayed some shipments into New Zealand.

“We’ve always got it coming in and we’ve stepped it up a bit to try and keep up.

We’ve got good stocks arriving from now on, there’s just been a couple delays with shipping with the opposite problem in Asia where it won’t stop raining.”

Meanwhile, sales of another supplementary crop, Chicory, are also on the up - rural supplies company RD1 reporting unprecedented interest from farmers.

Ballance Agrinutrients, are reporting sales close to 20 percent up on last year – led mainly by the Waikato region.

Warwick Catto, Head of Research and Environment at Ballance, says anyone looking for more information about supplements should contact their local rural supplies store, or a Ballance representative.