Copyright farmersweekly
Reading Time: 3 minutes Southland farmers are making do with generators to keep the lights on and cows milked following the recent storm, as fatigue begins to set in for many. Rural Support Trust Southland chair Simon Hopcroft said as of October 28, there are 185 dairy farms across the province without power and relying on generators. These generators are often shared among neighbouring farms. More generators were brought in over the long weekend to help with demand. The trust’s main focus through this is farmer welfare. “As you can imagine, there’s a lot of fatigue setting in on farms and that’s across all sectors on those properties without electricity,” Hopcroft said. As well as dairy farmers using the generators to power their sheds during peak milk, deer farmers need them to store velvet in the freezer. That fatigue is both physical and mental and communities are working together to support people. “There was a bit of adrenaline initially and now it’s fatigue, especially for those farms looking to get electricity back on and that could be a while yet.” Some generators are also starting to fail because of the load on them. “Electricians have been flat-out over the weekend helping shift generators, hardwiring them in and out to go to another shed. It’s been a collaborative effort.” He said a more promising forecast for later this week, when warm weather is set to return, should be a morale booster. Hopcroft said they will be hosting community events at the places worst affected to ensure farmers are supported. The clean-up will take months with thousands of trees down and buildings and other farm infrastructure damaged, he said. He urged farmers to remain safe if they are working to clear trees or other damage on the farm. Doug Bickley runs six farms around Southland and told Farmer’s Weekly three are still without power. Bickley said there are nine houses on those three farms. He has supplied them with generators to keep the freezers going, the farms share generators on a day-on day-off basis. They are using BBQ gas cookers for cooking. Bickley had to dump milk when the storm first hit, but with the help of generators is now running full tilt again. They went to once-a-day milking, but are now back at twice a day. He expects some mastitis issues in the coming day as cell counts were high. His farm farm crew is clearing trees so power companies can get to lines when they arrive to do repairs. Bickley supplies Open Country and says their trucks were out of action for the worst of the storm but have been picking up milk since the storm stopped. Southland Federated Farmers dairy chair Bart Luijten said they are now reasonably well sorted in terms of generator supply. “The real panic is over, but it’s still really inconvenient to be without power for so long.” Restoring electricity would be a huge morale booster for those impacted farmers, he said. Thoughts are also turning to cleaning up, assessing damage and disposing of any trees that have been blown over, he said. Fonterra’s regional head for the South Island, Mat Cullen, said that over the weekend teams have been working to re-establish contact with farmers and keep collecting milk. “There have been some delays while the tanker team have been working to get back on top of things. However, collections are returning to normal with this latest weather having minimal impact on collections.” Cullen said they are working with PowerNet to support where they can those farms still without power. “Our teams on the ground are going out to these farms and also supporting Civil Defence in sourcing and coordinating generators. “All our Farm Source stores are up and running. Some were open for extended hours over the long weekend and we’re encouraging farmers to take a break and drop into the store for a cuppa and a chat.”
