‘Virtual Farmy Army’ in action

She says while phone services are patchy and roads are buckled, Federated Farmers is assuring North Canterbury farmers hammered by the earthquakes they don’t have to struggle alone.

An 0800 number has now been set up to register calls for assistance by farmers and also offers of help from others. So far more 200 calls have been received, but only eight of these have been from farmers asking for help. But Milne says given the rugged nature of the country in the quake affected area ,the response has to be different to what it was in the Christchurch quake.

She as people get a better handle on the damage to their properties she expects these to increase. Help requested so far included somewhere to store deer velvet because a freezer unit had been knocked out, and someone else who needed drinking water.

Milne says she’s also delighted with the way other organisations are responding in a spirit of pulling together to get communities on the east coast of the South Island back up to speed. She says Spark, Chorus, Vodafone and other telecommunications providers were working together to reinstate data and phone back-up links wherever it is technically feasible. Farmlands, FMG and New Zealand Post have all offered assistance from their teams in the region

Miriam Bravenboer, a Federated Farmers member services team leader, says all manner of offers have come in, including accommodation, generators, money, willingness to take on cows for milking and manpower for urgent farming tasks.

She says a lines company that had trucks heading north asked if any farmers needed items transported and one person offered a year’s worth of grazing for up to 1000 stock units for free. Bravenboer says someone else with access to six helicopters asked ‘what do you need?’. And a Christchurch business that leases caravans is offering free delivery if farm accommodation was destroyed by the earthquakes.

The contact number for Feds is 0800FARMING (0800 327 646