Last month, I spoke of an absence of summer, and cold wet weather during the flowering and grain fill period here in New Zealand.

I had some optimism that our weather – which tends to run in six-weekly cycles – would give way to a fine spell for harvest. It turns out I was being “Captain Hopeful”.

Our wet summer is now autumn and the harvest has dragged. With limited good days, most of what we have done so far has had to go through the dryers.

See also: Cropping in the Fens: Working for a sustainable farming future

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.

Read more articles by David Clark

In a usual year, we would expect to dry two-thirds of the small seeds and harvest most of the cereals fit.

White clover, hybrid vegetable seeds and carrot crops were the hardest hit in the cold, wet summer which has hit across the entire district in Canterbury.

Unfortunately, many of these crops have been written off, particularly the clover crops. Many of the growers have made it into silage or turned lambs out on it.

We have pursued a harvest plan for our clover, but I suspect we have made an error in judgement, which is disappointing given that I thought our white clover at the end of November was looking the best in our 30 years of farming.

Fortunately, our carrot crop is a naturally later variety and may have escaped the worst of the weather. Cereal yields have been solid at 12-13t/ha in wheat and 9-10t/ha in barley.

Looking forward, I see it as being very challenging to put together a financially sustainable farm plan. Ryegrass and clover allocations are reduced and pricing is back.

Cereal pricing is firm, as long as the dairy price and confidence holds.

The key being confidence – not only in the dairy market, but in everything we do, small seed pricing and lamb markets included.

The madness coming out of the White House on both foreign policy and trade is in my view creating some huge risks to us all, and it would be very brave to make any predictions for what the next few months hold.