Waikato’s maize harvest is shaping up as a 50-50 situation where half of the crops will yield well while the rest will be poor as the wet summer takes its toll.
A handful of early-planted crops have been harvested with good yields reported, but with harvest fast approaching, Waikato Federated Farmers arable chair Keith Holmes said he expects the harvest to be challenging following so much wet weather.
“In a season when grain farmers were looking to make windfall profits despite significantly higher costs, very few will and many are looking at total devastation,” he said.
The federation must be vocal in getting financial help for affected farmers, he told a meeting in Hamilton with the organisation’s wider executive.
“The extent of some of the damage is life threatening in every sense of the word, sadly,” he said.
Holmes said it is likely farmers in Waikato will be asked to assist impacted farmers with feed, grazing space and machinery as the cleanup continues. While offers of stock feed to help are flooding in, he predicted these farmers may have more feed pressure closer to winter.
The weather has also provided the perfect conditions for bugs. Fall army worm has now spread across New Zealand and has been found in 113 maize and sweetcorn crops. Corn leaf blight had also been found in parts of South Waikato, he said.
Around the rest of the country, the very south of the South Island is dry and is harvesting excellent crops. Holmes described the rest of the country as a mixed bag, though Manawatū up to Waverly have some of their best maize crops.
Northland has suffered terribly with paddocks on its third attempt at planting unlikely to survive the waterlogging.
The East Coast down as far as Wairarapa had some excellent crops but many now have been annihilated by the rain and unprecedented flooding.
“Some areas it is so bad that even if their crops by some miracle survived the wrath of the gods, getting anything harvested is going to be a greater issue,” Holmes said.
He urged farmers to show some kindness towards contractors.
“Treat the contractors with empathy and as one of us – it is going to be a very difficult few months.”
Rural Contractors NZ president Helen Slattery said the effects of the two flood events have been “devastating”.
Even before the two cyclones struck her association had been in discussions with sector leaders about the poor maize yields given the wet summer.
Slattery said provided stalks have not snapped and once the soil dries out, there could still be harvesting options.
She has not made contact with members in Hawke’s Bay as they deal with the immediate response.
Holmes said the price for maize grain is still unknown at this stage due to the impact of the war in Ukraine. However, the vast number of maize grain growers on the East Coast are likely to be wiped out this year due to the cyclone.
“This could affect the local market price for both manufacturing and stock feed grain.
“There is likely to be a huge demand for seed for re-grassing – so don’t be fussy and be very wary about late summer weeds; you might have to spray and spray early before it gets out of hand.”
A lot of next season’s maize seed crop has been destroyed or damaged.
“However, they generally carry half a season’s seed forward but there may be pressure on some varieties next spring. A big issue as of today is whether they can get enough diesel to the grain driers at the moment.”
