Rain welcome surprise for farmers

Federated Farmers' Hawke's Bay provincial president Will Foley pictured at the end of January. Photo / File

Surprised Hawke's Bay farmers are celebrating after substantial rain finally fell over the weekend, after months of dry weather.

And while it has done wonders for the landscape in the past three days, it has also managed to lift the spirits of farmers, who were beginning to despair with continued abnormally hot conditions.

Hawke's Bay Federated Farmers president Will Foley said it had been a "drought-breaker".

"Certainly everyone sees this as a drought-breaker even though we were never declared as having a drought."

"It's been a very significant amount of rain from 90mm up to 200mm - a very surprising amount," Mr Foley said.

This has meant that farmers are now able to halt the process of destocking animals, which brings repercussions further on, as farmers struggle to find replacement stock.

"We are now able to plan ahead and look forward to the year ahead," Mr Foley said.

He said potential health issues for the animals could rear its head, as a result of the sudden weather change, including facial eczema, but farmers were remaining vigilant.

Central Hawke's Bay farmer Mike Petersen agreed, and said the rain had been a "life-saver" for all involved.

"It's been fantastic. It's lifted the confidence among livestock farmers, with what has been a pretty tough slog and that's an important part of it."

While the rain was enough for the time being, he said follow-up rain would be needed in a few weeks.

Metservice Forecaster Georgina Griffiths said it has been the most rain to hit the region in the last 6 months, with 105mm recorded at Napier Airport over the three days beginning Friday morning.

"This rain event is not exceptional, but it was a long, sustained period of rain. Exactly what Hawke's Bay needed."

She said the last comparable three-day totals were from August 8, 2016, where 97.6mm of rain was recorded, again at Napier Airport.

Rain levels varied across the region, with Bridge Pa receiving 131mm, while Napier CBD got a substantially lower 88mm and the ranges saw a particularly high 170mm.

While the three days were a welcome relief to farmers, dryer conditions and limited rain is forecast around the region in the next 10 days in what is expected to be a "quieter spell".

"Hawke's Bay seems to have turned a corner and it looks like a reasonably settled period. A couple of showers on Thursday and Friday and a southerly change will take the bite out of the temperatures a bit, Ms Griffiths said.