Don Charlton sows this crop of turnips in Armstrong Road in 20 minutes.
Don Charlton sows this crop of turnips in Armstrong Road in 20 minutes.
The unpredictable spring weather is affecting contractors and farmers in the northern Tararua.
It is all about planning for the future feeding of livestock, whether it be in summer or winter. While some contractors are busy harvesting the spring flush grass for silage and baleage, others are trying to disc, harrow and sow spring crops.
Spells of heavy rain are making the latter a challenge. Matt Charlton of DirtWorx Charlton Contracting says they are chasing the weather.
The soil is so wet in many places the discs are not breaking up the previously sprayed pasture very well and in some places like Weber it is too wet to even try.
But farmers need their crops sown and Matt is pleased he has the capacity to do the task quickly if the weather holds long enough.
With six large John Deere tractors capable of pulling discs, drills and harrows with a six metre span, a paddock like the one featured can be sown in 20 minutes.
DirtWorx also does a lot of off-farm work, carving forestry tracks, extracting/carting gravel contracting with the likes of Scanpower, Vodafone and Horizons.
"Even these have been held up by mud. One job which should have taken us four days looks like it will take us 11 days," says Matt.
Matt says his company still has 800 ha to sow before Christmas and he hopes November/December will be drier.
He has many loyal clients who depend upon him and his team. He really does not want more work at present.
Meanwhile it is not great for those who spray out a pasture before it is disced. Dave Fleming of Fleming GroundSpray Ltd says this season is the hardest he has had since starting seven years ago.
He has averaged two days of unbroken work instead of five this Spring.
"You just have to push on in marginal conditions, because farmers want to put in their crops," he said.
For those who harvest grass the weather has been similarly frustrating.
Regular rain has made the grass very wet and a lack of sun has made it hard to get the silage dry enough, according to contractor Kevin Harris.
Braden Rose operates the silage harvester for Kevin Harris.
His company cuts and processes silage and baleage throughout the Dannevirke area and he is a way behind.
He thinks grass crops will get heavier the longer it takes to harvest them.
"When the weather does come right we will be working long hours," he said.
Customer Heni Verwaayen from south of Dannevirke says the crop harvested on leased land last week was wet but it contained 60 tonnes of dry matter off the 40 hectares.
This is vital for silage as he milks over winter and the farm can also dry out in summer.
Braedyn Duff prepares to go and disc a paddock.
He hopes for another crop off the land before Christmas and had contractors fertilising the paddocks the day after harvest.
Meanwhile there is a lot of baleage going in, especially where the acreage is smaller and more uneven.
Bales dot the landscape in an ordered pattern until they can be stored.
Motorists are asked to be tolerant of the farm machinery which is sometimes holding up traffic.
