In NZ it's considered that the beginning of September is the start of spring, beginning of December is the start of summer, autumn starts beginning of March, leaving winter to be June, July and August. But it does vary a lot. I remember a few years ago the kids were still swimming in autumn well into May as it was still very warm. A couple of years before that summer was a pretty cool affair (I don't like the cold and I'd still put the fire on in the early mornings during January of that year) and autumn started very early. Northland does claim to be "The Winterless North" so we shall wait and see how that pans out.
Some rain would be awesome to get the grass growing, but with the rain comes the risk of facial eczema for our cattle. We've been saving one side of our place so the grass there is long (if rough) so we'll move them over that side once we start to get decent precipitation. After drought conditions in many areas over summer there are already huge feed shortages and farmers have been having to make tough decisions about culling stock, and the feed shortage is only going to worsen over winter with what would have been saved as winter feeds being used to get through this summer. I feel bad for farmers (they cop enough flack in this country as it is) and I'm just thankful we have enough feed for our girls, and that they are breeds that do well on rough pasture. We've been giving them hard feed but we only do it every 2-3 days now because if we do it every day they don't eat it, so they can't need it.
Lotto here is up to a big amount, and if we were luck enough to win DH wants to buy a big farm and just make silage and hay (except on my little corner where I'll have all my animals). We know a guy that's been flat out this year cutting silage and he's got farmers ringing him up, often in tears, desperately looking for more feed.
Does battling the elements to take care of the chickens count?
