Quake-hit farmers battle on the ground

Dairy Womens Network South Island convenor coordinator, Cathie Cotter, who is based in Invercargill, says she has been in contact with her regional convenors in Culverden.

Their farms are fine but they are taking cows from farms whose sheds are not operational, she says.

One of the biggest problems is the milk collection and the tanker getting through.

“But it is also very difficult because they are at the end of the AI, their mating,” she says.

“So the technicians and getting cows in for the AI …. it probably means that won’t be able to continue. So it is going to have a flow on effect for the next few years in their breeding programmes.

“There are all sorts of roll on effects…

“It is trying to keep their power supplies up because there is no power running through their electric fences. Cows are sneaky and they’ll start testing their fences.

“So it is trying to get the fences up and making sure they have got stock water.”

There were reports of one farmer having to dry their cows off already, but she could not confirm if that was correct.

“There are a couple of roads that have been completely destroyed that they haven’t been able to get tankers up.” That’s around Culverden and Waiau.

She says there are a number of dairy farms through Kaikoura but they don’t have an active Dairy Womens Network in Kaikoura, so she has had no information out of Kaikoura.

A number of farms that can milk have had to dispose of their milk. DairyNZ has said that cows can go without milking for number of days before detrimental effects on their health or they start to dry off.

“I think it is five or seven days that they can go without milking without having a huge effect…. But even then you’ve got mastitis and other cow health issues that start to be a problem.”

Civil Defence Emergency Management Canterbury said earlier this morning that Waiau and Rotherham appear to be the most affected farming areas. They had little information about Kaikoura farms.

Farmers should go to the Environment Canterbury website for information about stock drinking water access and milk disposal, civil defence said.