Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor has classified the conditions in Southland, Clutha and Queenstown Lakes districts as a "medium-scale adverse event", and has unlocked up to $100,000 in government funding to support farmers and growers until October 2022.
Rainfall on the South Coast has been the lowest since records began 50 years ago, and some rivers are at levels only seen about every 80 years.
Part of Mataura River catchment excluded
Environment Southland took the unprecedented step of issuing a Water Shortage Direction yesterday, covering all of Southland for the next 14 days, preventing all irrigation water takes.
The area being excluded from the water shortage direction is the part of the Mataura River catchment above the State Highway 1 Bridge at Gore.
This change was a result of reviewing the science and feedback from the community.
Environment Southland chief executive Rob Phillips said, while water levels in the Upper Mataura were faring better than other areas across Southland, they were still low, with very little rain forecast for the next two weeks.
“We’re still asking irrigators in this area to manage their takes and conserve water where they can.”
Mr Phillips said the direction would be reviewed regularly. “We are meeting with sector groups and iwi on Monday as part of the review process.”
“Farmers irrigating in the rest of Southland are still covered by the Water Shortage Direction. We recognise the need to take reasonable water for stock welfare, and for operational water use such as dairy washdown. We would encourage users to consider where water savings could be made, and to consider the potential impacts of their use on other users, the instream ecology and cultural values.”
“Those who are concerned about specific operational matters are encouraged to get in touch with us.”
People can email escompliance@es.govt.nz, call 0800 76 88 45 or log a request through the website at www.es.govt.nz/water-shortage
'It's going to be a challenge'
Councils have also put water restrictions in place across most of Southland, and Fire and Emergency New Zealand has issued a complete fire ban for the region.
Conditions are also very dry in the rest of Southland, as well as in Queenstown Lakes and Clutha Districts.
Wyndham sheep, beef and dairy support farmer David Clarke said the Government’s announcement was appreciated and the funding would be well used, but the months ahead would be gruelling for farmers.
"Things are not ideal. Considering we’re getting in to April and the grass isn’t growing, we’re certainly not getting a buffer of growth in ahead of us before we get into winter.
"There’s just not enough rain or soil moisture for us to grow anything."
Mr Clarke was feeding his stock winter baleage and was buying surplus feed and water when it was feasible.
Winter crops seemed to be holding on, but they would have a much lower yield than normal years, he said.
"It’s a green drought because there’s still green grass about, but the percentage of brown around the farm is getting more and more.
"Winters are hard enough going in Southland at the best of times. There’ll have to be some management changes. It’s going to be a challenge."
He said the biggest issue was the Covid-19 pandemic, which had disrupted meat processing and meant farmers could not get rid of stock.
"No-one down here has seen anything like this before. It’s the perfect storm with the dry and the processing capacity at the meat works being pretty low. It’s starting to get to the point where there’s not many levers left to pull in the armoury."
Federated Farmers Otago president Mark Patterson said the situation was similar in the Queenstown Lakes and Clutha areas.
"Particularly in South Otago, we’ve got longstanding rainfall records telling us that it’s the driest start to the year in 50 years.
"There’s widespread feeding out going on, they’re buying in extra supplements when they can get them and in some cases they’re buying in water.
"All the natural waterways have essentially dried up."
Mr O’Connor said the Government funding would go to the Southland and Otago Rural Support Trusts to help with both one-on-one support, community events and extra technical advice from industry groups, including feed planning advice.
Niwa meteorologist Ben Noll said the dry weather was likely to continue for at least the next two weeks, and the moisture deficit would expand and get worse before it got better.
"While there may be some rain over the next week, I don’t think it will be enough to see a reversal of the pattern at this point."
Farmers across the region gathered at their local pubs last night for "a chin-wag and some refreshments" to show solidarity and support for each other.
Mr Clarke said it was something farmers would have to do more of, to get through the months ahead.
"A problem shared is a problem halved, isn’t it?"
- additional reporting ODT Online
