Friday, March 29, 2024

Cereal crops deluged

Neal Wallace
Chris Dillon was 10 days away from harvesting 280ha of cereal crops when the Mataura River burst its banks and flooded his Ardlussa farm north of Gore on Tuesday.
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He estimates about 1000ha of cereal crops on eight farms beside the river are under water,

His wheat, barley and peas were exceptional this year.

Provided the water drops quickly he can salvage some crop while insurance will cover a percentage of the production cost of the wheat only.

Over 40 hours Dillon’s northern Southland farm was deluged by 180mm of rain and even after it flooded his property a further 70mm fell.

Dillon, who is also Southland Federated Farmers arable section chairman and a United Wheat Growers board member, has initiated insurance claims for farmers who have lost crops.

The swollen Pomahaka River was lapping the floor of Nelson and Fiona Hancox’s woolshed on Tuesday.

The west Otago farmers tipped 200mm of rain out of the gauge between Sunday and Wednesday morning and were relieved the river had retreated towards its natural banks.

It damaged some pasture, destroyed a 7ha kale crop and entered their sheep yards.

Nelson Hancox says the lost kale paddock was a bonus and will not affect winter feed because they have another 30ha of crop.

When they heard the heavy rain forecast they put stock on and ate the flood-prone area out.

While the flooding was a nuisance the river peaked 1m lower than its all-time record flow of 1984.

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