Private-sector donors linked to the farm sector have started chipping in to help Southland and South Otago farmers recover from their icy struggle over the past week as snow hit lowland farms in the middle of lambing.
Meat processor Alliance Group, insurance company FMG and fertiliser company Ballance Agri-Nutrients havecontributed $640,000 to help the farmers, and Federated Farmers has said it hopes other companies will join in.
The private-sector help is additional to the taxpayer-funded aid triggered yesterday when Agriculture Minister David Carter declared a medium-level adverse event in the area to enable government relief measures, including funding for Rural Support Trusts to provide help, welfare support, and farm management advice.
Alliance Group donated $500,000 to a relief fund for farmers affected by the severe weather, while FMG donated $100,000 to the Adverse Events Trust, and another $40,000 was provided by Ballance.
Federated Farmers has offered to organise feed, and help on-farm, including fencing repairs.
Mr Carter visited some of the affected farms in Southland and said the situation was grim.
"This is one of the worst spring storms seen in decades," he said. "As the extreme weather has hit in peak lambing season and at a critical time of year for dairy farmers, the impact is severe."
Farmers have said hundreds of thousands of lambs have been killed by the combination of snow, icy rain, and chilling winds, and some have lost pregnant or lactating ewes to metabolic illnesses as they ran short of feed just as the animals were in most need of good nutrition.
"Losses of this magnitude not only impose a huge economic cost on farmers, but also significant emotional and mental stress," said Mr Carter.
The adverse events spokesman for Federated Farmers, Southland sheep and beef farmer David Rose, said the last big dump of snow farmers there had was 14 years ago in the winter of 1996, and the last time there was such a severe snowfall was in 1972.
Forecasters have predicted temperatures should start to lift over the weekend as winds drop and sunnier weather returns.
