Waiau dairy farmer Don Galletly was all over the television news but didn’t have time to watch it – he was too busy sorting out his wrecked milking shed and what to do with his cows.
The cows were dispersed across other farms in the wider district over the next two days and the other work then took up all his time.
When Farmers Weekly called at 6pm for a progress report a week after the November 14 North Canterbury earthquake, he asked if we could call back in half an hour.
“It’s my first chance to see the news. I’ve been on it but haven’t seen any of it.”
Galletly’s story is one of farmers helping farmers . . . quickly and without asking questions.
His 950 or so milking cows have been spread among 13 other herds in the Culverden and Oxford areas.
The new farms feed the cows, get the milk income and as the cows dry-off they will be returned in-calf to Galletly, who hopes to be up and running for next season.
He also hopes dairy prices continue improving.
His milking platform was left a mass of cracked and broken concrete by the earthquake, incapable of milking the cows on the River Road farm a few kilometres from the equally smashed-up Waiau township.
He wasn’t to know that for a few hours after the midnight quake.
After checking the eight-strong farm workforce was safe, he and wife Donalda set off to drive to the milking shed but were blocked by a major gash in the track.
That meant a half-hour walk instead.
They could see there was damage but all they and the staff could do was to sit round the fire till daylight to be sure it was safe to move round.
“It wasn’t pretty. The concrete was broken and split, looking like a jigsaw puzzle and the yard was ripped around as well.”
Galletly said he’s not a milker. He’s still developing the dairy farm.
“The platform was off but I thought they might be able to lift it back on but then one or two others came to have a look and they told me it didn’t look too good.”
His Westpac agribusiness manager Nick Martin and FarmRight farm adviser Ed Tapp were soon on the scene playing major roles. Trish McIntosh from North Canterbury Federated Farmers was later also a big help.
Galletly’s phones were down but Martin was live and they were quickly organising other farms to milk the cows.
The herd missed the Monday morning milking but 450 went to Culverden farms that afternoon for milking and the other 500 were not milked at all on Monday but went away on Tuesday morning.
After being milked on Culverden farms about 250 of them were moved further south to the Oxford area.
Amuri Transport had stepped up at short notice to move the stock, Galletly said.
“We were loading the trucks at the same time as we were deciding where they should go. We had a marvellous response from everyone.”
A complicating factor was that the stock had to go to a rotary system milking shed because that was what they were used to.
They would have been lost in a herring-bone set-up. As it turned out, some went to herring-bone farms and had to be moved again.
Being the peak of the production season there was a risk of animal health issues, including mastitis, if the cows missed being milked.
However, it appeared as the rescue missions went smoothly.
“It’s all going fine,” Culverden farmer Glen Drummond, who took in 50 cows on the Monday night and added them to his herd, said.
“They’ve just slotted perfectly into our herd, a bit tentative when they arrived but then happy when they got in with the others.”
He then took another 200 for milking on the Tuesday morning before they were moved to other farms and that also went well despite them not being milked for 36 hours.
“We just had to be patient with them and I got another 10 guys in as reinforcements for the extra number of cows for the Tuesday milking.
“It’s just helping someone who needs help, you just get it done,” he said.
“It’s been a really good spring, there’s good feed about so it should all go pretty well.’
The Amuri Irrigation scheme was up and running again, after checks by the company, meaning it was back to normal operations, except that the area was still getting aftershocks.
Late last week Galletly still didn’t know if his milking shed would be written off by his insurers or become a big repair job.
He was philosophical about the events, including damage to houses, underground irrigation pipes, the stock water system and fences plus liquefaction on the paddocks.
“We can’t stop earthquakes so you just have to get on with it,” he said.
“I’m staying positive. I’ll get another shed up and I hope there’s another good season next year to help pay for what I’ll miss this year.”
He was pleased other farmers had also offered work to his milking staff.
While the milking cows were gone the farm would be left with 290 rising two-year-olds and 400 yearlings to feed.
Galletly hoped he could do that as well as make hay and balage to sell to bring in some money and also offer some contract grazing.
The development cheque-book was being put away in the meantime.
Galletly has been too busy so far to go and see the cows at their temporary homes.
“I’ll be going to see them at some stage to thank all the people,” he said.
