Agriculture Minister Tours Waikato Drought Zone

Agriculture Minister David Carter visited drought-stricken farmers in the Waikato on Wednesday to take the pulse on how farmers are coping. While a drought committee was established at a meeting in Hamilton on Tuesday to give farmers support, the Minister’s whistle stop tour proved the first chance to hear what the Government will do as it steps up to the plate.

Meantime, Federated Farmers is warning the upper North Island drought will have a significant impact on national dairy production. 40% of the country’s dairy farms fall in official drought zones.
If marginal regions like Bay of Plenty and Otago are included that rises to nearly 50%.

Milk production in Northland is down about 29%, partly because last season was a poor one. Production in South Auckland including Waikato is down 6.5%.
In the Bay of Plenty, milk production is down 3.1%. With the North Island accounting for two-thirds of total milk production,  milk volumes will be down about 2% nationally, costing New Zealand hundreds of millions of dollars in lost exports.
Feds Dairy Chairman Lachlan McKenzie says final numbers are hard to predict, but farmers need to be careful they don’t hurt next season’s production by trying to stretch milkings now.