By Rachel Morton
After two weeks of rain, the worst drought in Northland in 65 years is over.
It lasted for six months and cost the farming industry millions of dollars.
But while things are looking better in Northland, the drought continues in the Waikato.
It might look like a boggy mess, but puddles and mud caused by two weeks of intermittent rain are exactly what Northland farmers had been hoping for.
"It was lovely, it was warm, it was enough, it wasn't too much," says farmer Denis Anderson. "There could have been too much, which would have caused slips, but for most areas it was just what we wanted."
It's a difficult balancing act - the concern for farmers now is that there'll be too much rain this winter.
"If it turns cold and wet now then that feed that we're hoping to grow just won't happen and things will be really tough," says Mr Anderson.
More rain though is exactly what's needed in the Waikato. It'll take at least another 100mm to end the drought there, and farmers are being warned to prepare themselves.
"They should be doing feed budgets looking out over the next two or three months," says MAF policy manager Phil Journeaux, "probably talking to their bank managers about cash flow. Most of them will probably have to be buying in supplements."
The drought has cost the Waikato an estimated $1 billion, and it's expected it will take two to three years to recover.
"The big risk is that they'll get through the winter and into early spring where the cows are starting to calf and they run out of feed," says Mr Journeaux.
The forecasts for both the Waikato and Northland though are promising - more rain is forecast over the next few days and there's expected to be above average temperatures over winter.
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