Editorial: Testing times
OPINION: Our hearts go out to the farmers and rural communities in Southland and Otago who are battling an onslaught of adverse weather.
Ed Harrison of Baker Ag says it's been an accumulation effect from a wet winter 12 months ago through to the recent cyclones, which have badly impacted some hill country and coastal areas of the region.
He told Rural News the hot spots of damage are around the township of Tinui with damage down to Homewood and Glenburn.
Harrison says the big problem has been slips on hill country farms, which have predictably taken out infrastructure such as fences, culverts, floodgates and tracks.
"With fences down there is a problem with stock retention and animals pushing through to paddocks they shouldn't be in. It also makes grazing management very difficult and affects feed allocation, meaning it is hard to hold feed for the spring if paddocks are not stock proof," he says.
Harrison says despite these challenges, a lot of good work has been done to reinstate fences. But he says with tracks washed out there is a problem of access to parts of farms to check on stock and to repair fences.
Adding to the woes and frustration of farmers is that many required tracks last winter, but with Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle these tracks have been washed away again.
"There is nothing more dissatisfying that having work just completed being washed away again, so that's been a big frustration," Harrison says.
While the hill ountry has been hit hard with slips and washouts, down on some of the flats, there is a covering of silt. Harrison says while this looks atrocious, it is in fact quite easy to fix and recovery has been quite good.
However, he says getting grass to grow on the steep and badly damaged hill country is another thing and the cost of investing in this can be marginal.
