Rhea Dasent and her daughter Althea show their thanks to farmers helping out their beef cattle farm in Mangatahi. Photo / Selby Dasent
Rhea Dasent and her daughter Althea show their thanks to farmers helping out their beef cattle farm in Mangatahi. Photo / Selby Dasent
Hawke's Bay farmers scored a double coup at the weekend with both rain and a windfall of feed from the region's little brother in the south.
As well as a welcome few millilitres or the wet stuff in the Bay, Wairarapa farmers stepped up with truckloads of feed from theirregion.
"It was amazing to see the support from the community and everyone supporting our farmers," David Todd of the Rural Support Trust in Hawke's Bay said.
"On the way up from Masterton there were people all the way up at their gates or on the side of the road showing their support and thanking those who are helping out.
"By the end of the journey there were a few truckies with tears in their eyes."
Poppy Renton, founder of the Hawke's Bay Drought Facebook page, said the whole day was very emotional.
"It was so moving seeing people across both the Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay come out in support because these are difficult times for farmers and their families," Renton said.
Rhea Dasent, policy advisor at Federated Farmers, returned home to help her father on their farm in Mangatahi since his employee left and, being a beef cattle farm, had found times tough.
Janice Dasent and grandson Leveson watch as bales are unloaded. Photo / Rhea Dasent
"We're down to 50 per cent of the animals we'd usually have this time of year and have almost used up all the hay and silage we make especially for when pasture is low, a bad spring meant we didn't make as much as we'd have liked to," she said.
"Buying in extra feed is very expensive, especially when we're looking at income being hammered for the year ahead."
So when the support down south headed up the road they were extremely humbled by peoples generosity and help them to keep going that little bit longer.
With 600 bales supplied from over 100 farmers it will be distributed out to needy farmers through the rural support trust.
The family dog Bear also wanted to show his appreciation. Photo / Vicki Sorensen
"Four of the trucks are going to go to farms, and they're going to drop half-a-load and then take the rest to a point and disperse it when it's ready," Renton said.
Charlotte Heald was on the side of the road with her family in Norsewood cheering on the trucks and their precious cargo on its way to Hawke's Bay.
"We feel very proud to be farmers in NZ at this time and it's heart warming to see farmers helping farmers," she said.
"Often we'll get the rain that'll break summer dries sometime during March and April, yet here we are mid-May still waiting for that," he said.
"But with the added pressure of Covid-19 and many processing plants have to take limited stock and added restrictions in place it has added to the stress."
With a few light showers over the weekend there were a few spots of relief for the region but it wasn't seen as anything significant with farmers only getting 5-12mm in the last couple of days in hard hit regions.
A MetService spokeswoman said that over the coming week at least there may be one or two light showers but nothing of significance to change the drought conditions.
"People say it only rains in Hawke's Bay when we host an international one-dayer," Todd joked.
