Farmers rebuilding after the Tasman floods have been given a helping hand to the tune of $280,000 of fencing supplies.
Donald Ladley, who lives on the family sheep and beef farm in Eighty Eight Valley but also farms a block at Wai-iti, was one of 145 farmers who turned out for the Farmers Community Connect event in Tapawera last week.
Packages of posts, wire, strainers and staples, worth around $2000 each, were donated to each and every pre-registered farmer courtesy of Rapid Relief Team – the charitable arm of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.
Each package was specifically catered to their needs, whether that be sheep, dairy, deer or hop farming.
After they collected and secured their load, farmers were able to head inside and get a hot breakfast and speak to one of the many rural support providers that were in attendance, offering services like financial counselling, health, well-being, and veterinary support.
With more than 300 hectares to farm across the two blocks, Donald says the water just came straight through and wiped out all the internal fencing at his Wai-iti site.
His Eighty Eight Valley home, where his father has farmed for the entire 80 years of his life, is now forever changed.
“It’s a river boundary, so it’s taken good hay paddocks,” he says. “We’ve lost about eight hectares of productive ground that’s just gravel now.”
With only roughly $10k of insurance cover for fencing, he says the package will enable them to finish reinstating the fencing on their home block.
Donald says he hasn’t had much time off the farm since the flood. “It’s a good chance to catch up with people I haven’t seen in a while. “No good lying in bed, otherwise nothing will happen.”
Nelson-based RRT director Ronnie Malcolm says the fencing is just one part of the event.
“The main objective is to actually get farmers off the farms to come in to take a break. It’s good to get them to understand that people do care, are here to help, and they’re not alone.
“It’s not going to fix all the problems, but it gives a bit of encouragement.” Fencing contractor Hamish Barker, who also farms in Stanley Brook, says farmers are looking at $25-27 per metre to erect basic sheep fencing – but once you get into the likes of deer fencing, “its worse”.
He says the packages will go a good way to helping assist with the cost of the clean-up.
“We’re farming and fencing, it’s been pretty full on, we’ve been helping people that have lost virtually all their fences and trying to fix our own.
“We’re on the Stanley Brook; we haven’t had the damage that some of these guys in Tadmor and Motueka have had,” he says.
It was a sentiment that was echoed by everyone in attendance– there’s always someone worse off.
For more information on donating or the event visit rrtglobal.org/nz
