In Marlborough, farmers are in a holding pattern as they wait to see whether parts of their region will be the next classified as drought areas.

The province is very dry and a difficult winter is predicted with many farmers having already de-stocked.

Meantime, in  Waikato, prices for supplementary stock feed are high because of the drought.A bale of wrapped silage is now $100 - that's an increase of 20%. Three quarters of dairy herds there have now dried off with rain desperately needed.

And In Northland, it's now seven months since any significant rain fell. There's very little feed on farms and only a few herds are still milking.

That could signal a serious feed shortage in spring if there's no decent rain in the next couple of weeks.