In March, a drought was declared in the Northland region. Photo: RNZ / Alexa Cook
The president of Federated Farmers in Northland says the recent heavy rain has been gratefully received by farmers in the drought-stricken region.
Nearly 250-millimetres fell on inland parts of Northland in just over 30 hours last week.
The heavy rain has been causing chaos for commuters in Auckland and Northland, with surface flooding and road closures across the region.
But president of Federated Farmers in Northland Colin Hannah said farmers had been grateful for the downpour, but more rain was needed in the long term.
"It will be significant enough to get the grass growing but in terms of our aquifers, we're going to need a lot more.
"It's the lowest I have ever seen it in 11 years so we need more, but we don't want it at a volume that it's going to flow out to sea."
President of Federated Farmers in Northland Colin Hannah. Photo: Northern Advocate via LDR
He said a gentle start to the rainfall meant a significant amount of moisture would have been absorbed into the dry ground.
In March, a drought was declared in Northland, as well as the Waikato, Horizons, Marlborough-Tasman, and Taranaki regions.
Hannah said farmers were getting desperate.
"Farmers were starting to cut into their winter feed reserves. [The rain] has just given us some sort of short-term reprieve hopefully, we'd welcome a little more rain - we won't say no," he said.
MetService is forecasting that another weather system will bring rain and a moderate risk of thunderstorms to northern and western parts of the North Island on Sunday.
The worst appeared to be over for the top of the South Island.
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