Cyclone Gabrielle: DairyNZ working closely with affected farmers

Destroyed farm buildings caused by the Waipawa River reverting to its original course during Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Mark Mitchell

DairyNZ is offering region-specific support to cyclone-affected farmers, who are responding to a range of different issues on farms across the North Island.

There are around 1000 North Island dairy farms affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, with some needing more immediate assistance than others, DairyNZ’s farm performance general manager Sarah Speight said.

“First and foremost, our hearts go out to every rural community where there are adverse events going on,” she told The Country’s, Jamie Mackay.

DairyNZ was working closely with farmers, both behind the scenes and in person, Speight said.

“Every district has a Rural Advisory Group … we sit on those, we help them coordinate with Civil Defence and NEMA … to get what’s required for that community.

“On a more practical level, we are obviously contacting farmers to see that they’re okay and offering to help them [with] business continuity around feed planning - thinking about what things look like in order for them to be able to carry on doing what they do best.”

DairyNZ also teamed up with Fonterra, LIC, and Federated Farmers, to organise helicopter flights to check on the wellbeing of Hawke’s Bay farmers isolated by damaged roads and cut off from communications.

“We made sure they got food and generators and fuel and animal health supplies, and we even flew a vet in as well.”

The immediate focus for farmers was to ensure animals were fed, watered and comfortable, Speight said.

“Cows are pretty resilient, they will cope without being milked for a few days. It depends on the stage of production though and how much stress she’s under ...

“However, it’s not great for mastitis and that kind of stuff, so ideally you don’t want to leave it more than a few days.”

In the long term, recovering from adverse weather events took a toll on farmers, their staff and their families.

Speight predicted mental health issues would be widespread in the rural community, even for those who weren’t severely impacted.

“New Zealand is the kind of place where everybody knows somebody who’s been affected in some way and we are very mindful that ‘the top paddock’ is one of the most important assets [for farmers].”

There were groups ready to help farmers needing assistance in this area, Speight said.

“We’ll be working alongside Rural Support Trust ... and Farmstrong - organisations like that.”

The Government has announced a $300m funding package for recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle.

Speight predicted part of this would go toward supporting mental wellbeing.

“We’ll work really closely with them around making sure that we do all that we can in that space.”

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Help for farmers

DairyNZ is in the process of organising online regional events and in-person response events.

This will be in collaboration with other agencies and allow communities to support each other and provide the opportunity to hear from rural professionals, including local veterinarians and bankers, to further support the recovery.

For more information and tools for cyclone recovery visit dairynz.co.nz/adverse-events.

For further support contact your local DairyNZ extension partner or call 0800 4 DairyNZ, or alternatively contact Rural Support Trust on 0800 787 254.

Mental wellbeing resources can be found on Farmstrong’s website here.

To volunteer for the Farmy Army to help with the cleanup, or to register for help, head to Federated Farmers’ website.