Recent rain is welcome but much more is needed to return soil moisture levels to normal, says Rick Powdrell, president of Bay of Plenty Federated Farmers.

'Our region is much better off than a lot of areas but the rainfall has been varied and we need significantly more to bring things back to normal.”

'We need more rain and now” - Rick Powdrell, president of Bay of Plenty Federated Farmers.

The region went into summer with soil moisture levels below normal and although rain in late December, early January and then again in February helped, pastures are struggling.

NIWA says the Bay of Plenty is among areas classed as severely to extremely drier than normal for soil moisture. Other areas are the Waikato, southern Taranaki, Wellington, Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay, Gisborne, southern Auckland and northeast Northland regions.

Rick says when the rain has come some areas have received 40 to 50mm at a time, and others miss out altogether.

'We were 250 mm short on rainfall for last year, largely due to a very dry November. We had reliable rain in December but so far this year on our farm (south of Te Puke) we've had 75mm in total. At times we can get that in one rainfall event.”

One positive for farmers is that this season's maize crops appear to have done well despite the dry.

Commercial grower Bill Webb of Te Puke says: 'Despite its slow start, the maize promises to yield a very good crop and the rain we had mid-February helped fill out the cobs just at the right time. Rain in December, early January followed by warm sunny weather has given us a crop much better than expected and now we're well into harvest.”

The silage made from those crops will help farmers feed stock now that pasture growth has slowed.

Rick says areas of the Bay of Plenty like Galatea expect to be dry and manage farming and stocking rates accordingly but increasingly farmers across the entire country have to learn to farm for more extreme weather.

'Federated Farmers, along with industry partners, is focusing on helping farmers build resilience into their farming systems. We are seeing districts like Taihape which have always been considered summer-safe now having dry summers too.”

Rick says water allocation is the next big issue looming for the Bay of Plenty and in fact the entire country.

'We need to look closely at water storage options.”

A recent trip to California made him acutely aware of how fragile water supplies can be, Rick says.

'In Nevada there have been three mild winters in a row which means much less snow on the mountains. The city relies on snow melt for its water and there are real concerns about the future water supply.”