Three large truck and trailer units rolled into Tapawera in late August, all the way from Canterbury, loaded with donated bales of stock feed for flood-hit Tasman farmers who won’t be able to make their own this year.
It started with a group of Canterbury agriculture contractors who understand the impact of flooding on farming communities, so they reached out to their local farmers who each donated a few bales.
The South Island Agricultural Field Days committee donated more and when Aorangi Young Farmers contributed $5,000 to help with transporting the bales to Tapawera, the trucks were loaded up to head north.
It was the end of the day and a breakdown enroute before Lachie Hamilton from May Brothers Contracting, along with fellow drivers from Quigly Contracting and Cresslands Contracting, delivered their loads to farmers, including Dion McGaveston who has paddocks on river flats resembling a riverbed following the winter floods.
Those river flats would usually grow supplementary feed for next winter, but not this year, and on top of that there is the ongoing clean-up and the constant sight of gravel and silt. For Dion, those donated bales are an enormous relief to him.
“It’s huge. It takes the pressure off next winter. We got through this winter, but we’re not going to have that area to make next year’s supplements.
“There’s 20-odd hectares where we usually make silage and it’s covered under rock and debris and silt.
“It’s awesome to think that many people are happy to help you out when you need it. Otherwise, it was a bit grim.”
Nelson Federated Farmers president Kerry Irvine says, the truckloads of feed were being distributed between a couple of sheep and beef farms that were hit particularly hard in the floods that had left paddocks looking “like a war zone”.
“There’s some pretty raw emotions because some of the properties will never look the same again. They’ve been pretty thankful for this hay which is a real good Kiwi gesture.
“Life is a bit of a roundabout - Nelson has been hit, but next time a different area will be hit, and it will be our turn to give back. We won’t forget people who have helped us out; one day we will be helping them out.”
Lachie says each contractor went to their farmer clients to fill their truck and trailer units. Other regions had helped Canterbury farmers in the past and now it was their turn.
“For farmers who have been hit hard, when other farmers are helping them out, they’re pretty damned happy at the end of the day. Otherwise, they can keep going down that hole.”
Kerry says a large number of people have donated to the Farmers Adverse Events Trust to support flood-affected farmers which again showed how “the generosity of Kiwis is massive”.
He says the flood repair work continues in the region and there is “not much heavy machinery stationary at the moment”.
“The hardest thing is finding people to drive them.”
