Watch NZH Local Focus: Hauraki farm cleanup to cost millions

The Hauraki region has been hit by heavy rain three times in the space of a month - and some land is unlikely to be usable until Spring.

Dairy Farmer Fred Dijkstra says parts of his run-off block in Patetonga have been flooded and some of it will be out of production for months to come.

And he says he's yet to estimate the cost for him personally.

"I can't put a price tag on that one, I can't put a price tag on the flood. There were seventy bales, they are gone. But I don't want to complain, we had to move stock home, so that's 150 animals for cartage and now we have to feed them at home. There's always a bit of a risk in farming you know."

While much of his property is unusable, some of his crops were saved.

"We were lucky we got the maize off in time, so the maize is saved but when the stock returns? We don't know."

Stock on low-lying properties had to be swum out over the weekend. Helping with the evacuation was Morrinsville dairy farmer and Waikato Regional Councillor Stuart Husband.

"The biggest thing for me is just the human tragedy in it," he said.

Mr Husband also chairs the Integrated Catchment Committee.

"You've had two back to back cyclones which hasn't happened before and it's caused massive flooding as you can see, but basically nothing's breached. Everyone keeps saying it's breached but nothing's breached. It's just overtopped where's it's supposed to overtop. But there's never been this extent before of overtopping, and it's just devastating. I mean the cleanup cost of this is in the millions," Mr Husband says.

It'll be months before farmers will have access to their land beneath the temporary lake of water.

In the meantime, the Waikato-Hauraki-Coromandel Rural Support Trust is hosting a series of meetings connecting farmers in need with organisations that can help.

Mr Husband says there is support available for farmers - all they need to do is ask. Or he encourages people to call 0800 FARMING for help with feed or cleaning up.

"The problem is the cleanup, the problem's the fences, the cleaning of fences, redoing the wires, it's huge work, it's months of work."

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