Rnz: On The Farm

The East Coast soils are absolutely chocker with water, especially on the flats, which are of minimal value for grazing. Canterbury's very wet too and there's and at least 100 millimetres of rain's forecast for the next couple of days.

Areas of Manawatu that never see snow received up to 15 centimetres on Thursday, Rotorua city had snow flurries, and outlying areas like Mamaku and Rerewhikaaitu had heavy snow on the ground.  Flood waters also covered paddocks in southern Wairarapa. In the South Island the forecast snow arrived in Canterbury. Between 5 and 20 centimetres of snow was common across the Plains.

Northland continues to be very wet making ground conditions difficult particularly with calving now underway. In Canterbury prices for top sheep and cattle dogs have remained strong at the 61st annual Ashburton Sheep and Cattle Dog Sale.

Frosty conditions have hit the North Island this week, but despite very little rain, conditions underfoot are extremely mushy. Canterbury dairy farmers are busy heavy rolling their dairy platforms while the cows are off farm for winter.

In Canterbury it's been dry enough for stock to make good use of feed and even put on condition. Most of the North Island had a good dollop of rain late in the week.

The price of kumara has shot up because a bad growing season, coupled with appalling weather during the main harvest time in autumn, has seen a 35% drop in volume compared with normal years. Heavy frosts hit Marlborough this week but the days were gloriously fine for pruning grape vines.

Mild, calm weather has been good for vegetable crops in the Pukekohe district and in Otago, electric pruners are chopping through the work in apricot orchards.

On Central North island hill country farms second shearing continues and farmers are cracking on with maintenance. In Canterbury large numbers of dairy cows have moved from dairy farms to support blocks and runoffs.

It's been foggy, frosty and wet in the North Island and belatedly the green kiwifruit harvest is starting to hum. Meanwhile in Central Otago, temperatures have been below zero and stock are being fed plenty of supplements.

The dairy season is coming to an abrupt halt in the North Island and in the South, winter's made an appearance.

Rain arrived onto already wet pastures in the North Island and in the South, it's becoming too cold for the grass to grow in Central Otago.

More dairy herds are being dried off, or slowed to once a day milking now and there's the first snow on some North Island ranges. Southland dairy farms are also moving down to 16-hour-a-day milking in order to keep the season going as long as possible.

Lovely calm and sunny days, with cool nights, let North Island farmers and croppers get onto the land for cultivation or repair work, and the kiwifruit harvest had an uninterrupted week for a change. In Mid-Canterbury arable farmers are busy planting winter wheat and barley along with some late planted ryegrass for seed.

The North Island is drying out after the Easter rain, and cool temperatures are helping kiwifruit mature. The rams out in force on hill country farms in Marlborough and there's tons of feed around, while farmers in the lower country are gearing up to get the Ewes scanned.

Many North Island farms have saturated soils after a week of rain and in-between the downpours contractors are trying to harvest maize. In the South Island rain is destroying grape crops in Malborough while in Southland more rain would be welcome.

The country's largest on-farm deer sale was held on High Peak Station, Mid Canterbury, this week and Edgecumbe farms are swamped. Much of the rest of the North Island is sodden too.

Bay of Plenty dairy farms are having a decent autumn but wet weather has interrupted the kiwifruit harvest. Grapes in Marlborough need more sun to ripen and in Southland store prices are on the rise so lambs are flooding into the works.

Maize is being harvested in Waikato and the first kiwifruit exports left for China this week. Marlborough farmers are busy setting up rotations around tupping blocks for ewes. In vineyards the bulk of the grape crop needs two more weeks of sun to ripen.

In Bay of Plenty the first of the Sun Gold kiwifruit are being harvested in sunny conditions. Kiwifruit are also being picked in Poverty Bay and Northland. On the West Coast of the South Island lots of silage is being made, paddocks are being cultivated and remedial work on damaged pasture is underway.

Northland, Auckland and Coromandel were swamped in a one in 100 year deluge this week, while elsewhere in the North Island the rainfall was more gentle, welcome and has grass growth pumping. In the South Island night temperatures have dropped quickly but often stunning days are following.