Dairy farmers who struggled to keep their cows fed in the drought earlier this year, now have the opposite problem: so much grass they don't know what to do with it.
Dairy NZ says the unusually mild winter has produced an early flush of grass in some North Island regions including Waikato, Taranaki, Manawatu - regions that were in the throes of drought just a few months ago.
Farmers in Canterbury are also reporting grass up to the top of their gumboots.
Dairy NZ regional teams manager Craig McBeth said the rapid turnaround in growing conditions presents some pasture management challenges for farmers who aren't used to dealing with so much grass when it's still winter.
The risk is that the pasture levels are so high that the cows leave extra grass behind, high grazing residuals, so that the grass that's left the plants aren't as inclined to grow vigourously."
He said that means the quality of the grass will start to deteriorate sooner in the season than it would otherwise be the case and that will impact on future production.
Mr McBeth said options open to farmers for managing the grass surplus include speeding up the grazing rotation, using less supplementary feed and nitrogen fertiliser and closing up surplus pasture for making silage earlier than normal.
