The past 18 months’ weather has been unusually wet. This continued into winter – which was relentlessly wet – and it has been tough on both man and beast.

We struggled to keep weight gains on lambs which were grazing the winter crops.

See also: Farm soil carbon: Is the focus on sequestration right?

About the author

David Clark

Farmer Focus writer

David Clark runs a 463ha fully irrigated mixed farm with his wife Jayne at Valetta, on the Canterbury Plains of New Zealand’s south island. He grows 400ha of cereals, pulses, forage and vegetable seed crops, runs 1,000 Romney breeding ewes and finishes 8,000 lambs annually.

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This meant that when we spread them out on to grass seed crops for spring finishing, we needed to optimise growth rates to meet our contract targets.

To maximise seed yield from the forage varieties, we closely graze them from August through to closing in mid-late October in order to synchronise tiller development.

Some years it can be a challenge to have enough mouths to control the explosive grass growth.

Not so this year. Every blade of grass had a lamb standing over it and, while it might be textbook correct for setting up seed yield, it has caused a nervous time for the stock department.

The lambs did very well on the fresh growth, so I think it might just work out well all-round. Having said that, this may be more good luck than stellar management.

Due to the wet weather conditions, we could not cultivate in August.

We were forced to push back all our spring fieldwork, so it was jammed into September, along with lambing the ewes and transitioning the finishing lambs from crops to grass.

Our grain deliveries are running well ahead of schedule. We cart all our own produce, either direct to farm buyers or to manufacturing feed mills.

I tipped the last load of wheat this morning and the last of the barley will be on the truck next week.

It is very unusual for us to have all deliveries done before the end of the year.

This is both an indication of the shortage of grain due to last year’s poor harvest and the very strong demand for feed coming from the New Zealand dairy sector.

With all the grain delivered and the lambs soon to be gone, we might even get a chance to catch our breath.