The region was declared in drought in March.
Leading up to winter, farmers had jettisoned stock, including productive animals, by 20% to 30% because of the ongoing dry conditions compounded by lower scanning.
The result of the smaller carry-over is meat companies are reacting to fill their chains, with prices nosing towards the high $6 per kilogram mark last week.
Front of mind for farmers as they ride the winter out with lambing at their doorstep is feeding remaining breeding stock, as replenishing rain is still in short supply.
A tough year financially is on the back of rising costs and earlier low returns, although banks are responding with lower interest rates after the Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate.
North Canterbury Federated Farmers meat and wool chairwoman and Marble Point Station farmer Sara Black said rising prices were too late for many farmers.
"I know for us the trading stock we would sell coming into the spring we had to get rid of at the end of autumn. Even though there is a blip and some great prices around it does seem to be a supply issue born out of scarcity rather than a long term trend coming from the external markets.
"It’s probably not sustainable and something a lot of farmers who are going through this situation won’t be able to benefit from."
High prices showed there must be few stock around, she said.
She said farmers in their area had come through a mild winter so far, with some 15°C days.
"It’s a double edged sword, as winter can be such a cold, dark and miserable time and I’m sure for many farmers it’s the least enjoyable time of the year. This year it’s been more bearable from a living point of view, but the added stress of not topping up the moisture levels means the dry doesn’t really go away as a result."
For some farmers, June rain was the first "double-digit" rainfall experienced since mid-December.
Mrs Black said they had 50mm in the first two weeks of June, which was the most substantial rain received this year.
Other properties ranged from 10mm to 50mm in Cheviot.
"It was a good rain, but we are dealing with low moisture levels in the soil and lots of creeks and water ways just aren’t even running. Even our rivers are at reasonably low levels at the moment.
"Everyone has been looking towards spring since autumn and hoping a little bit of moisture will get us through the traditionally dry summers. But the systems have been few and far between and when they do come — 30mm or 50mm — it gets slurped up very quickly. So more is needed."
Another 27mm of rain and 25mm of snow last week at Marble Point leaves them with a bit more moisture when the heat arrives.
Farmers made early decisions by bringing in costly feed or finding grazing and offloading dry ewes when scanning results were back or exiting breeding ewes with triplets to reduce stocking rates.
They knew once they were in winter and set stocking into lambing options would be limited as they held on until feed arrived in spring.
"Everyone pulled as many levers as they could in the autumn. Going through a dry summer isn’t unusual in this part of the country, but staying dry into autumn is."
Mrs Black said a winter without long cold periods had helped stretch supplementary feeding, as budgets were tight.
Many farmers in lower areas had started lambing.
For farmers on steeper hill country, such as Mrs Black and her husband, Matt, who farm Marble Point’s 2388ha between Hanmer and Culverden, this won’t start until mid-September.
They are in an equity farming partnership running 4100 Corriedale ewes and 430 Angus beef cattle.
Mrs Black said putting their 1100 two-tooths on an irrigated block for the first time and another 1200 ewe hoggets going out to grazing had proven to be the right move.
"It was a good decision and we wouldn’t have been able to keep them home anyway. It was probably the only decision we could have made. I don’t know of any other alternative."
Farmers would continue to farm conservatively until the weather turned, she said.
"We’ve held on and hopefully feed comes away and the little bit of rain we had is enough to start it off, but we wouldn’t mind a follow up. All farmers are trying to do the best with what they’ve got. Potentially their ewes may not be in the condition they want them to, but people are trying really hard to make the best of it and capitalise on what lambs are on the ground to take those through.
"A good lambing sets you up for the year ahead and if the lambs aren’t there you don’t have anything to work with."
She said farmers were hoping to avoid big snow events which had come in the past.
The Hurunui Adverse Event Committee and the North Canterbury Rural Support Trust had provided farmers with great support, she said.
Recognising the region’s plight, a group including Minister for Rural Communities and Associate Minister of Agriculture Mark Patterson visited Waikari and Scargill Valley last week.
Mrs Black said farmers dealing with a tough time appreciated the announcement of additional funding for veterinary support and were supporting each other.
"This is the uncertainty that comes with farming and it’s a great lifestyle most of the time and a great place to live and place to be, but unfortunately it’s not all the time.
"We have some proud farmers and really resilient people that come up with plenty of ideas. That’s the importance of talking to each other, because there’s no textbook on what to do and everyone has slightly different systems and individual ideas, but they might apply to your system as well.
"In the financial situation that a lot of farmers are finding themselves in that little tweak is something they can control and taking an action is always a positive thing."
To lighten spirits and get farmers off the farm a Farm Break event is being organised with comedian Ben Hurley providing entertainment and Richard Loe acting as MC at Foxdown farm in Scargill Valley on September 6.
