Opinion: Why the weather matters so much to farmers

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Real rain brings euphoria to farmers, writes Federated Farmers Rotorua/Taupo Dairy Chairperson Colin Guyton.

Our city cousins often say 'you farmers are always moaning about the weather'.

The reality is our income is stitched very closely to what the weather wants to do.

A weather event like this current dry stretch can affect our total season and result in a sad end of year financial result.

With minimal rainfall since January, this current summer is starting to hurt.

Read more from Federated Farmers here.

A drought creeps up on you and you know it's starting to affect you when you are constantly searching weather reports in the hope of seeing rain in the near future.

We get excited when we see rain forecasted, but if you have been farming a while, you don't trust forecasts as so many times promises come to nothing.

Weather forecasters and their happy faces when they presenting the weather with another glorious day - turn that bloody television off.

I often hear farmers described as resilient and we are.

However, lack of rain does cause sleepless nights when you have the responsibly of feeding 800 animals and your pantry is rapidly emptying - you have a few decisions to make.

I find that making the decisions are what you procrastinate about, however, they have to be made.

Farming becomes busier and complicated and usually less profitable.

Even though events like this put you and your family under a lot of pressure, you put on a brave face because we are all going through the same process and younger farmers need to see it is still business as usual.

Keeping motivation up is difficult, however, lack of motivation can compound problems, corners cut and mistakes made.

This is when support is crucial. I surround myself with friends, both rural and urban.

Rain, real rain, not showers, drizzle, isolated rain, but real rain brings euphoria.

I mean it is quite conceivable to see farming families running around the house in their birthday suits when rain finally comes.

Farmers like bees in the spring start buzzing again.

There is a new spring in our steps, we know that we still have three or four tough weeks to go as grass takes that long to recover, but the drought has broken.

We can put new seed in the ground.