Cyclone Gabrielle’s ‘swimming cows’: The story behind the video of a Waipawa farmer’s heroic whistling

A herd of cows were neck deep in flooding and at risk of being swept into the river in Waipawa on February 14. With some encouragement from their owner they swam over 500 metres towards Kylie McIntyre's voice. Photo / Vet Services Waipukurau

There was little more heartwarming in the grim days following Cyclone Gabrielle than a viral video of a herd of Central Hawke’s Bay cattle swimming bravely across a flooded waterway towards the sound of their owner’s voice.

It was a desperate attempt on the part of farmer Kylie McIntyre to save her herd - the “Motley Crew” - from the savagery of the floodwaters that swept through Waipawa that day, destroying homes and trashing livelihoods.

The previous night, aware of the forecast of heavy rain, Kylie and her partner Max Buckeridge had moved the 23 mixed-breed steers and heifers from their paddock on the Waipawa River flats to higher ground, a paddock borrowed from a neighbour.

A herd of cows were neck deep in flooding and at risk of being swept into the river in Waipawa on February 14. With some encouragement from their owner Kylie McIntyre they swam over 500 metres towards her voice. Photo / Vet Services Waipukurau

There they thought the Motley Crew would be safe.

The next morning the animals were found standing in water up to their bellies, with two deep, swift waterways between Kylie and her cattle.

“Then the water started rising, fast. It was amazing how fast it happened, about half a metre in about 20 minutes,” Kylie says.

The spooked cattle headed for “home”, unaware that their home paddock had disappeared under now the raging Waipawa River.

“That’s when I lost it,” says Kylie.

“I started calling them and calling them and they just swerved around and started coming towards my voice. I was calling them out of sheer panic.

“They swam fast and straight. If they hadn’t they would have been swept into a fence further down and been caught up and drowned. When they got to the edge of the water they had to scramble up a steep wet bank, amongst willows and blackberry. Their heads were going under, the sound was awful.”

Kylie can’t watch the video of the cattle swimming to safety, which was taken by Max and shared online, before making headlines across the globe.

“It’s too heartbreaking, too raw. We were dealing with such a lot at the time, we lost our crops, fencing, but at least the floodwaters didn’t take our house.

“I didn’t register how many views the video was getting ... nothing really, there was so much that had to be done.”

After swimming the cattle home, Kylie and Max helped a neighbour shift his sheep to safety and then moved their horses to a higher paddock.

“The rest of the week just went into a surreal state. You never expect something like that to happen and we never want to go through it again.”

Max Buckeridge, Kylie McIntyre and children Jett, Austin and Taylor with some of the cattle Kylie guided out of the floodwaters to the sound of her voice. Photo / Paul Taylor

The video attracted not only attention, but donations towards vet treatment for the Motley Crew. Vet Services Hawke’s Bay also pitched in, coming out the next day to start treatment to prevent pneumonia.

“There was a huge risk they would get sick from all that dirty river water going into their lungs. There were only two or three that didn’t need treatment, it was very costly.”

Only one cow didn’t make it to safety. She was found the next day when the water receded, under a willow tree.

“She would have been sleeping under the tree the night before the flood. The tree came down in the strong winds, it would have killed her instantly. That gave us some peace of mind,” Kyie says.

While most of the herd are still on-farm, as friendly as ever and running up to Kylie and the children to be fed corn husks or shifted to new paddocks, some have reached their inevitable fate of going “to the works”.

“There were some tears shed, but that’s part of farming, we look after them and treat them very well while we have them.”

The fences are back up and the cattle are back in the paddock by the river, but heavy rain still makes the family anxious, with Kylie’s thoughts going back to February 14.

The crops are back on track now too, after a big digger cleanup and lots of tractor hours to work the silt back into the ground and recreate seed beds.

“We have spuds and onions, beetroot, maize and sweetcorn and it’s all looking good - and we need that.”