Farmers in some of the driest parts of the country received some relief in the way of rain over the weekend.
Parts of Waikato received more than 40mm of rain, and in Northland there have been reports of up to 80mm since Thursday.
Rain has also fallen in dry parts of Taranaki, Bay of Plenty, and Nelson.
Drought conditions have been officially declared in Northland, North Auckland, the Waikato region and the Ruapehu district.
Northland dairy farmer John Greville, who milks more than 500 cows on 230-hectares, says his Kaipara property has received about 77mm of steady rain over the past few days.
He says it's been a good soaking rain which should help scorched pastures recover over the next few weeks.
Mr Greville says he's about half way to making up the soil moisture deficits on his farm.
He says the rain along with warm ground temperatures will definitely give growth.
More needed
But Mr Greville says the question is how long it will keep going if there's no follow-up rain.
He says about 120mm is needed to make up the deficit of moisture in the soil so they're half way there.
But Mr Greville says it does not take long for that to evaporate if there are very sunny days with lots of wind.
He says supplementary feed for his dairy herd has been costing him $1200 per day.
