Rain, lovely rain!

11th June 2007

REBECCA HARPER

Rain has finally arrived in Hawke's Bay, with more falling in one day than the whole of May, but for farmers the damage has already been done.

Rain started to fall around the Bay yesterday and has not let up since, with the Metservice forecasting rain for both Hastings and Napier until Thursday.

All of the Hawke's Bay Regional Council's 43 collection sites had recorded rain in the last 24 hours.

Bridge Pa had 24.8ml, Crownthorpe 30.6ml, Te Pohue 34.6ml, Onga Onga 18.4ml, Waipukerau 13.2ml, and Wairoa River at Marumaru 17ml.

Despite the rain, the Hastings District Council said the complete fire ban was still in place.

Although the region was firmly in the grip of a drought, Federated Farmers' Hawke's Bay branch spokesman Kevin Mitchell said it was "never too late" for rain.

"It's really just the start. We need a heap more, but there's a good chance we could get a good lot of rain this week the way the weather map looks," he said.

Now the most important thing for farmers would be to give stressed pasture the chance to recover, something that would take a good three to four weeks.

"Most of us will have stock spread out over the farm. What we need to do now is mob stock back up and get it off that pasture," Mr Mitchell said.

Unfortunately, most farmers would not have any feed to lock stock up on, so would need to provide supplementary feed. "It's an extra cost, but it will be worth while later on when stock come to gestation and it's crucial they get good grass," Mr Mitchell said.

Aside from the physical benefits of the rain, one of the biggest pluses was the mental lift it gave farmers. "It gives morale a much-needed boost. There's a light at the end of the tunnel and, boy, it helps lift your spirits," he said.

With feeding out starting it would become more difficult for people to get away from the farm for a weekend, especially single operators, but Mr Mitchell encouraged family and friends to help out where they could.

"If farmers can get a weekend away it certainly helps." On its rural seasonal outlook for Hawke's Bay, the Metservice website said rain would be returning to normal after a very dry autumn.

"Low-pressure systems moving in from the Tasman Sea may be preceded by wet episodes with easterly winds and this is what is needed to break the drought.

"If one of these systems manages, as it approaches, to mix air from the tropics with air from the south, then prepare for a downpour and some thundery showers or hail," the website said.