Being on the Taratahi Water Race system has been a saving grace providing stock water for Dakins Rd farmers Julie and John Booth.
But the benefits of that small gain are now being outweighed on many other drought fronts for the dairy support and beef cattle farming couple, whose land is becoming a dust bowl.
"We graze dairy cattle all year round and no longer have any grass except for a small picking of very dry stuff so we are feeding baleage and hay to all stock except our rising 1-year-olds as we have a small area we can irrigate at night," Mr Booth said.
The Booth farm was on David Shearer's agenda yesterday but had to be bypassed by the Labour leader who ran out of time and was due to fly to Dunedin in the early afternoon.
Mr Booth said in a normal year they would not start feeding out until June.
