The rain over the last week was about as close to perfect as you can get for us - 82.5mm at home (Glenrock) and just under 100mm at Mondure where we grow your hay. Nice steady rain that fell over a few days. The lucerne paddocks and horse pasture blend in one paddock are now looking fantastic - but it will be several days before we can get on the paddocks to start cutting, and longer if more rain falls. One of the horse pasture blend paddocks really needed to be cut last week, so the lucerne in it is looking a little old, but the grasses are powering ahead. The drought is by no means broken, but this rain has certainly lifted everyone's spirits. We hope that is wasn't too much for those of you on the coast - certainly the falls we have heard were much larger than ours, but we DEFINITELY didn't want that much rain :)
|
In the last week, locally, any excess hay supply has dried up and the on-farm price has jumped massively. We are trying to limit price rises as much as possible, but have had to put our prices up. We have begun turning most new requests away to look after our existing customers. Depending on when produce stores last got their stock in, they may actually be cheaper at the moment, but it’s unlikely to stay that way. We know of hay growers that are getting more on-farm for a bale than we are delivering it to you for. On the good side, unlike last year, we are still producing hay J and lucerne should continue to be available through into winter. Our horse pasture blend should also get more productive as the cooler weather arrives as it is predominately cool season species. The current hay shortage is entirely due to the drought and good, widespread rain may turn the situation around quite quickly.
|
NewsCheck here for updates on deliveries, holidays and delays. Archives
January 2015
Categories |
RSS Feed
