Surreal win for cyclone-hit farmer

Attending the awards ceremony in Dannevirke was a "surreal feeling" for the 29-year-old, who hadn't been into town since the cyclone cut off his only access route late last month.

A day after winning the title, Crawshaw was back in Patoka working on the farm and helping the community.

"Describing the win is hard because for so many ways it hasn't sunk in," Crawshaw told Rural News.

"Following the awards ceremony on Saturday, I was exhausted and really just caught up on rest, but then the following day it was straight back to reality and I had to get back home to Patoka to continue with farm jobs and support the community getting stock out across the river, which had been a few weeks in the pipeline getting sorted."

He hopes to find some time in the next few days to reflect on what has been and ultimately what is to come. Crawshaw says the win has made the community proud.

"I am really humbled by the offers of congratulations and admiration that I have received but I just wanted to go and do my best and find a distraction from our immediate challenges."

Crawshaw and wife Isabelle farm 250ha of pasture for prime beef and lamb production for the US market. About 27ha of land has been retired for forestry carbon biodiversity.

They purchased the property in 2018: for over three years it was Beef + Lamb NZ monitor farm.

Like many other farmers in the region, the Crawshaws were impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle. But they are thankful to "still have the comfort of our own home to go and our belongings".

Crawshaw says infrastructural damage and access is their biggest challenge to overcome. Water systems and boundary fences of the farm have been restored.

"We have lost a bit of grazeable land with slip scarring but thankfully a spell of sunshine has helped heal what was perceived as non-productive."

The current phase of recovery has been focusing on animal husbandry.

He says then will come a concentrated effort will go towards resuming control within the farm gate.

"The lack of control within the farm gate is a serious issue as we typically would be setting up reserves for winter in March," he explains. "It is a long journey ahead and will take a number of years before pre-Gabrielle productivity is restored."

Crawshaw and other farmers in the region are getting support including a $10,000 grant from Ministry for Primary Industries.

He says they have benefited from the private sector donation of fuel, generators, food, dog food and fencing equipment.

"As a community we received a lot of support from private companies and donations in the first couple of weeks for basic supplies and now we are starting to see support come through with initiatives like donated fence posts.

"The farming gear donations will be extremely valuable to us and we are hoping that there will be some more support coming from the Government financially for recovery on farm."