Taranaki economy shifts from oil and gas to dairy as leading export
The Taranaki region is enjoying one of the highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita figures in New Zealand, thanks to high farmgate dairy prices.
FMG chief executive Chris Black told Dairy News that 1200 claims have been lodged as of last week and they keep coming. Staff have visited about 600 clients to assess damage. Some rebuilding is beginning but much clean-up work remains to be done, especially fallen shelter belts that have blocked tracks and damaged fences.
The clean-up of trees will take heavy machinery and time, Black says. "There's also quite a bit of corrugated iron in paddocks."
He says FMG is getting claims from all around the North Island because of the floods and high winds of the past week – from Northland, Wairarapa, East Coast and Waikato.
"Most of this is for farm buildings and dwellings damaged by the wind rather than flooding."
Meanwhile Federated Farmers and DairyNZ, trying to help farmers when the big storm struck three weeks ago, say one of the biggest problems was communications when the power was cut.
Craig McBeth, DairyNZ, says it was pointless referring people to their website, or telephoning them, because there was no power. In the end they had to rely on news media to relay their key messages.
Derek Gibson, Feds, says they had similar problems. But the storm has raised farmers' awareness of the need for contingency plans for such events. Small generators able to power pumps for watering stock are affordable to most farmers, he says. Not so large generators for running dairy sheds.
"It can cost up to $25,000 for a generator that will run all the infrastructure on a dairy farm. One to run just a shed would cost about $12,000."
McBeth and Gibson urge farmers to work with friends and neighbours to share equipment and plan to deal with major events, especially during the first day or so.
