Flood waters have swamped or scoured winter crops, baleage and some grain stores, compounding an existing shortage of supplementary feed following a dry summer.
Autumn sown cereal crops have also been damaged.
“The feed budget across the South Island is very tight due to the drought, which is very unfortunate and will make it even tighter to get through winter,” Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers president David Clark says.
“It is not a case of trucking it in because it is just not available.
“We didn’t need this.”
While farm infrastructure has been severely damaged, Clark says there is urgency to get council roads repaired so farmers can access their farms and livestock.
David Acland from Mt Somers Station emptied 350mm of rain from his gauge in the 36 hours since Saturday.
The average rainfall for June-July for his property is 80mm to 90mm a month.
During his time on the property, Acland says the most rain he has recorded for a year is 1600mm.
Flood waters were quickly subsiding this morning.
“I am driving through a part of my farm this morning that I could not have driven through five hours ago,” he said at midday.
Acland has 100ha still under water and has suffered no stock losses, but his biggest fear leading up to the event was that temperatures would plummet and the moisture would fall as snow.
Translating the volume of rain that fell into snow would have meant 2m of snow at his homestead causing serious livestock issues.
Methven farmer Hamish Marr says the biggest challenge facing farmers will be replacing damaged or lost winter feed and autumn and winter sown cereal crops.
The storm coincided with gypsy day and Mid Canterbury sharemilker’s section chairwoman Rebecca Miller says some farmers have had to delay plans to shift farms.
Road closures have restricted the movement of stock and plant but she says the lack of space and ability to feed cows could create metabolic issues.
Given the exceptional weather event, Clark urged farm owners and sharemilkers to talk and to be understanding and supportive of each other.
