increase font size
Slips on Wairarapa hill country farms have taken out infrastructure such as fences, culverts, floodgates and tracks. Photo Credit: Ed Harrison.
Parts of Wairarapa are still recovering from a year of wet weather and storms - including Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle.
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.
If there was a silver lining in the tragedy that was Cyclone Gabrielle, for New Zealand Young Grower of the Year, Grace Fulford, it was the tremendous sense of community and seeing first-hand what good leadership looks like.
Listed carpet manufacturer, Bremworth is undertaking a $6 million expansion at its Napier plant more than two years after the site was heavily damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle.
The road between Napier and Wairoa is on the mend.
The Good Carbon Farm has partnered with Tolaga Bay Heritage Charitable Trust to deliver its first project in Tairāwhiti Gisborne.
A large Māori-owned kiwifruit business that was badly damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle has bounced back with a vengeance.
Dawn Meats is set to increase its proposed investment in Alliance Group by up to $25 million following stronger than forecast year-end results by Alliance.
A day after the ouster of PGG Wrightson’s chair and his deputy, the listed rural trader’s board has appointed John Nichol as the new independent chair.
Tributes are pouring in from across the political divide for former Prime Minister Jim Bolger who passed away, aged 90.
The iconic services building at National Fieldays' Mystery Creek site will be demolished to make way for a "contemporary replacement that better serves the needs of both the community and event organisers," says board chair Jenni Vernon.
Agri advisor Perrin Ag says its graduate recruitment programme continues to bring new talent into the agricultural sector.
Entries are open for the 2026 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards (NZDIA).
