The weekend's spring snowstorm in Mid Canterbury will cause some lamb losses, but not catastrophic ones, because farmers were well prepared, Farmers Weekly NZ reports.

"It was forecast, and very accurately. Farmers had time to prepare," said Kerry Harmer, Mid Canterbury provincial chair of Federated Farmers, who farms Castle Ridge Station. Around Castle Ridge in the Ashburton high country the snow was up to 15cm deep in places, and perhaps deeper further up on Arrowsmith Station.

Because of the early warnings, stock had been moved to more sheltered blocks, and Harmer said that was the case right across the foothills, with farmers shifting animals and organising feed before the storm arrived.

The event was short and sharp, he said, and the worst of it for stock was the heavy rain that came before the snow, which is always hard on sheep. There had been little frost afterwards and a nor'west wind was already thawing the snow quickly.

Harmer said it helped that stock had come through winter in good order with reasonable feed supplies. "Everybody has something to eat. There will be some losses but it's not going to be catastrophic."

Photo: Dean Molyneaux / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Source: Farmers Weekly NZ