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The heavy rain at the weekend was not ideal timing for farmers in the Tararua area who were in the mid-calving and pre-lambing phase.
The region received about 120mm of rain over four days, with up to 20mm per hour recorded at its peak on Sunday.
Damien Reynolds raises sheep and cattle on 900 hectares of mountain land along the Makakahi River, 3 kilometres south of Pahiatua.
Reynolds said they woke up on Sunday morning to find the plains flooded and the river rising very quickly – but luckily they were able to get the cattle and ewes up the hill in time.
He said while the river may no longer be at its highest level, there is still a lot of water.
“It’s been very wet and there’s been flooding on the ground, not to mention the rising river water. The river water has risen and it has spread to the apartments of our neighbors on the other side of the river,” he said.
“Now the ground is flooded and the soil is wet, it’s impossible to graze the paddocks and (we) have to look at other options for where the livestock can go.”
He said it was a major incident and the river level remained high for about 24 hours, while livestock were at higher ground in the meantime.
“All of these livestock have stopped growing their winter crops, which makes it difficult for them to get back to growing again for a while.
“Luckily the flooding was mainly during the day so we were all able to respond, as were neighbours and dairy farmers in the flats.”
Meanwhile, Thomas Reid, provincial president of the region’s federation of farmers, said he had not heard of farmers being affected – and while there had been ample warning, there was still time to move livestock to higher ground.
But he said the timing was bad.
“Yes, the excess rain is really troublesome for farmers because dairy farmers are calving and sheep and cattle are in the lambing stage,” he said.
MetService is forecasting rain later this afternoon but it will ease over the next few days.
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