• Dry, but it's been worse, Kauru Hill farmers says
Otago Adverse Support Trust chairman David Shepherd said it was asking the drought in Central Otago, Dunedin and Waitaki be deemed a medium-scale adverse event.
Such requests have to be made along territorial local authority boundaries, even when not all of each district is affected.
A letter was sent to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry yesterday and a spokeswoman for Agriculture Minister David Carter said he was aware of the situation in Otago and the request would be considered.
Otago Regional Council director of environmental information and science, John Threlfall, said Central Otago was the driest region in the province, with little rain since last May.
Mr Shepherd said while not all parts of the Maniototo, Central Otago and North Otago were parched, the dry spell was prolonged.
With the onset of cooler weather, rain would provide little respite.
"It is bad because it's widespread and it's been so long."
Little supplementary feed was harvested after a poor spring, and winter crops had struggled.
Some farmers had been feeding out supplements since February.
Many sheep farmers had sold the ewe lambs they would usually keep as replacements for breeding flocks.
Others had sold cattle they would normally take through until spring.
Speakers at a meeting in Ranfurly on Monday would advise on help available from the Government and the Adverse Events Trust, and on managing stock feed and finances.
The trust's North Otago co-ordinator, Dave Mellish, said struggling farmers should seek help by contacting the Otago Adverse Support Trust or a neighbouring farmer.
People should not "bury their heads in the sand for too long".
Parts of North Otago and the Hakataramea Valley were badly affected, he said.
"Warm" rain was needed.
If the weather turned cold, rain would make little difference.
South Canterbury Rural Assistance Trust co-ordinator David Hewson said meetings to discuss the dry conditions were planned at Waihaorunga and in the Hakataramea Valley, probably in early May.
The situation was not desperate yet, but it was "certainly getting that way".
Otago Federated Farmers president Mike Lord said it could be a long winter for some farmers.
Even if rain fell, it would be too late to benefit inland parts of the province.
He urged farmers to look carefully at their business, their feed supplies and the number of animals they proposed taking through winter.
"For some, that will mean selling capital stock.
For some, that might be the only option."
The risk was farmers would not face up to their situation in the hope spring would be kind.
`The worst thing they can do is hold on to all their stock and run out of feed."
The drought:
- Classifying the drought a medium adverse event would fund a co-ordinator to help farmers and rural communities manage the drought and make it easier for them to access Work and Income assistance.
- Otago Regional Council figures show Ranfurly last year had its driest year, 263mm of rain, since records began in 1943.
- Its average is 440mm.
- Ida Burn recorded 358mm of rain last year, its third-driest year since 1988.
- The six months since May 2009 was the driest six-month period on record.
- Three heavy rainfalls in January and February in helped Central Otago, but the intensity meant most of the rain ran off.
- March rainfall was much less than average; Ida Burn 14mm (37mm long-term average), Ranfurly 9.6mm (43mm) and Corriedale 7.5mm (52mm).
