Roads blocked, farms cut off, milk dumped due to floods

In Golden Bay, Fonterra milk tankers were still trying to reach around 40 farms in Collingwood late last week.

As this edition of Rural News went to print, Fonterra staff were on the ground looking at access roads and tanker access to reach those farmers cut off by landslips triggered by record rain.

The news was, however, better for farmers in Rai Valley in Marlborough, one of the worst affected regions.

Fonterra regional head Canterbury Tasman and Marlborough, Charles Fergusson, says the co-op started collecting milk off eight farms on the main road between Renwick and Rai Valley last Wednesday.

Ferguson says with a bit of luck, they were hopeful of reaching other farms in the Rai Valley and Canvastown area.

“But there are still close to 40 farms in the Collingwood area that will likely remain cut off for a bit longer,” he told Rural News.

“In preparation for the state highways opening up again, we have people on the ground looking at access roads and tanker tracks on to farms.

“We’re doing everything we can to ensure we can start safely collecting milk when those highways do open up and we will continue to keep in close contact with Waka Kotahi.”

Federated Farmers Golden Bay president Cherrie Chubb says the most pressing issue is damage to some key roads.

“There is a slip that has been affecting Birds Hill and restricting access to light vehicles only.

“All farms on the Collingwood side of the slip are having to dump milk and fixing that section of the road is a priority,” she told Rural News.

The Rai Valley received 1,200mm of rain during the deluge. Photo Credit: Justin Morrison

But Chubb says conditions are beginning to improve. The Golden Bay region received almost 900mm of rain over six days. She says it’s understandably taking a while to dry out.

“We have had a few days now of fine weather, including some prolonged periods of sun. It’s warm and the grass is growing.” Over in the Rai Valley, Marlborough, of the 43 dairy farms there, only nine had their milk picked up for most of last week.

Marlborough has 200 properties – made up of beef, sheep and dairy farmers and lifestyle blocks. Last week’s flooding was the second one to hit the region in 12 months.

Federated Farmers Marlborough Dairy chair Evan White told Rural News that people had made progress over the last 12 months, “only to go back to square one last week”.

White says farmers were either dumping milk or feeding it to bobby calves that could not be picked up by stock transporters.

The Rai Valley received 1,200mm of rain. White says many people in the region had never seen anything like it.

“The sheer volume of water was amazing,” he says.

At the height of the floods, about eight dairy farms were under water, including a dairy shed. Technicians were flown in by a helicopter to fix the milking platform.

White says most dairy farms had electricity or generators and are milking cows once a day.

He says access to farms by tankers and stock trucks was the main issue.

Some farms had lost bales of feed in the flood but the overall feed situation was okay. Federated Farmers has been arranging delivery of emergency feed from Canterbury.