Source: Radio New Zealand
David Clark inspects his radish seed crop. RNZ/Anisha Satya
This year’s carrot seed crop should have been David and Jayne Clark’s money-maker.
“Establishment was very good,” David said.
“Our weed control through the winter was exceptional … our plant height is very even, and then our umbel (flower cluster) numbers going into the pollination season [were] also very good.
“The bit that we were missing out on was typical hot, dry Canterbury weather.”
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A wet summer costs a lot for an arable farmer in the plains.
It prevented bees from pollinating crops, which meant fewer seeds, and less product to sell.
And if the rain turned to hail, a year’s work could turn to compost overnight, a reality many Canterbury farmers had experienced over the past three years.
“There’re some farmers here in mid-Canterbury who had no crops to put through their combine harvesters after the hail.
“That’s years to recover from.”
The weather is one of several reasons why the Clarks will leave the arable industry, and farm something else.
Jayne and David Clark say it isn’t feasible for them to continue cropping with the current markets and climate. RNZ/Anisha Satya
“We’re all on a no-exit road in arable at the moment,” David said.
“The return on capital is less than the cost of capital.”
They haven’t decided yet what they’ll farm next, but dairy cows were a major contender.
“The faster all of us can exit the arable industry and move to cows, the better.”
Greendale farmer Rod May has already made that move – and he’s excited about it.
Farmer Rod May outside a new dairy shed being built on his farm. RNZ/Anisha Satya
“We’ve always looked across the fence at the dairy industry, and been a wee bit envious of their farm succession plans,” he said.
He began converting his farm two years ago, when Environment Canterbury (ECan) enabled a consent process to change farmland use.
In the past two years, 43 dairy effluent discharge consents had been approved – that meant 43 new properties have been permitted to send their cow runoff onto neighbouring land and waterways.
Twenty consents were for farms in central and north Canterbury; 23 were for farms south of the Rakaia river.
A further 17 consents were in progress.
ECan said the approved 43 consents would allow a maximum of 37,367 cows to be introduced to the Canterbury plains.
Rod May is swapping crops for cows this year – and that requires infrastructure, like a dairy shed. RNZ/Anisha Satya
“We were the second consent to come out, and the second shed to be built in this area,” May said.
“There’s a wave of them; there’s a belt running from Greendale to the [Waimakariri] river.”
With dairy conversions making headlines throughout last year, May said some people thought arable farmers were jumping from one cash cow to the next.
“But it’s not like that, that’s not the reality,” he said.
Like the Clarks, succession was on May’s mind – to keep the land for his children, it had to be profitable.
“We just want a small, reliable business for the family.”
Federated Farmers arable group chairperson David Birkett said it was understandable why so many Canterbury croppers were leaving the game.
Leeston arable farmer David Birkett. RNZ/Anisha Satya
Machinery was expensive to fix and replace, and hikes in fuel prices following the conflict in Iran had added more strain, he said.
“We were just filling up the tractor this morning; before the war, it was probably costing us $450-odd. Today, that’s probably going to cost us $1100 to fill up for the day.
“You don’t see that same issue in dairying.”
David Birkett inspects his pea crop. RNZ/Anisha Satya
Birkett is one of several growers who would be impacted by the Heinz Wattie’s processing plant closure, although he said there were other plants to turn to in the south.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/04/18/country-life-why-canterburys-crop-farmers-are-leaving-the-industry/