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IRRIGATIONNZ SAYS initial reports suggest more than 800 irrigators across Canterbury are severely damaged and will need to be repaired or written off following Tuesday's big wind.
"The extent of damage to centre pivots and other irrigators across the region is unprecedented," says IrrigationNZ CEO Andrew Curtis.
"This is an extremely serious situation as we simply don't have enough parts to repair all of these machines in New Zealand. We're looking at a six to eight week time lag before parts arrive and then a similar timeframe before repairs can be completed.
"If we experience a dry spring, the consequences could be dire for many Canterbury farmers as irrigation will effectively be stymied,"
Gavin Briggs, owner of Rainer Irrigation, says his company alone is aware of 260 centre pivot spans lying on the ground and another 30 pivots across the region that have lost key components. He describes the situation as "a logistical nightmare".
"It's actually quite serious even though we're still a couple of weeks away from the irrigation season starting. Many farmers don't have back-up systems for effluent and were relying on centre pivots to do the job. It's a disaster."
Rainer Irrigation has ordered a large quantity of parts from overseas suppliers but it could be 60 to 90 days before they arrive. The company usually employed 30 staff at this time of the year for irrigation repairs, but would double that in the coming months. Seven cranes were working this week to lift damaged equipment.
Briggs believed irrigation systems close to rivers suffered the most damage as the wind funnelled through river beds "getting a fair bit of speed up". While insurance claims would take a while to resolve, his company and others in the industry would move as quickly as possible to repair irrigation infrastructure "because it's our client's livelihood and there's a fair bit of unhappiness out there."
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