24 Mar 2010

Farmers failing to make drought plans

8:15 pm on 24 March 2010

Meat and Wool New Zealand says it is surprised to find many farmers in Northland are not doing the necessary planning and accounting work to determine how much feed they need to get through the drought.

The organisation is holding a series of meetings for Northland sheep and beef farmers this week, to discuss how they can manage their way through the drought.

Its Northland representative Malcolm McCallum says during the first meeting, it became clear that farmers were very concerned about the extent of the financial impact of the drought on their businesses.

He says farmers need to keep their banks informed about their on-farm costs, financial positions and budgets, but some do not appear to have that information available.

Mr McCallum says a two further meetings will be held with farmers in the mid and lower parts of the Northern region on Thursday.

The dairy industry is also running drought-help meetings for farmers.