On Wednesday, Northland was declared a medium-level drought zone and Minister of Agriculture David Carter said a drought-recovery package was in place to help affected farmers.
South Island manager for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Trish Burborough said the Northland region was the area of most concern, but parts of Central Otago and North Otago were also very dry and "we're definitely keeping a very close eye on the situation and reporting back to the minister".
The Teviot Valley, Maniototo, Middlemarch and the Hakataramea Valley were the "hot spots" for drought in Otago, she said.
"If the situation in those areas deteriorates, we would certainly get involved and get rural support trusts involved."
"There was a little bit of rain in some of those areas at the start of the month, which helped, but we need more to be of any use.
Farmers destocked early because they had little choice."
Mrs Burborough said there was concern about new grass crops sown for feed and also the lack of supplementary feed that had been produced.
"The only good thing, in this case, is that other areas of New Zealand are unaffected, so there is grazing available outside the affected areas."
The Northland drought-relief package included tax assistance for farmers, farm management advice, welfare support and funding for rural support trusts to provide help.
Federated Farmers adverse events spokesman David Rose, of Southland, said the main priority of Federated Farmers was to get good information out to farmers so they could make informed decisions early.
"Those who get through the drought best will be those who acted early," he said.
A drought was particularly hard on farmers because it was so drawn out.
"In Southland, more often than not we're dealing with floods instead. You know when one is coming, can take what actions you need to deal with it and then once it's come through, you just have the cleanup - it's all over usually in 24 hours.
"With a drought, it's there all the time and that makes it hard on people."
Federated Farmers had a drought phoneline - 0800 DROUGHT (0800 376 844) - which was available to all farmers.
It matched farmers with surplus feed to those in need.
