The wash of seawater that surged through Kaiaua on January 5 had all but disappeared by early last week.
A lot of West Coast dairy cows have been culled and many farmers are down to once-a -day milking as feed stocks disappear.
“The big question is how will they get through the winter?’’ he said.
After a wet last winter that caused poor pasture growth, the West Coast had a very dry start to summer, causing pasture to turn from swamp to concrete-like conditions, Agriculture and Rural Communities Minister Damien O’Connor said.
The drought assistance classification gives the West Coast Rural Support Trust and other recovery organisations a funding boost of up to $50,000 to help organise community events and arrange facilitators to work one-on-one with farmers. Income assistance options and tax flexibility can be added where appropriate, O’Connor said.
The Upper Grey Valley and Reefton areas were worst affected by drought but the whole West Coast/Buller region from Fox Glacier and Whataroa to Karamea were affected, Langford said.
Earlier rain was undone by subsequent scorching temperatures the soils and ryegrass pastures couldn’t handle.
However, more rain than expected had fallen in the last few days and more was forecast. If it all comes it would take about three weeks to produce a start to reasonable pasture growth.
“We’re in a rainforest region and farmers learn to farm in wet conditions but we don’t learn to farm in hot, dry conditions,” Langford said.
West Coast joins lower North Island areas on the Government’s medium-scale adverse event list. Taranaki, western Manawatu-Wanganui and parts of Wellington have been very dry.
Those areas had some rain since the classification was put in place just before Christmas but a lot more is needed. Like the South Island’s West Coast they had a sudden change from a very wet winter and spring to a very dry summer.
River levels in Otago and Southland are falling with many near or at minimum levels below which water takes have to be reduced or suspended.
Otago Regional Council environmental services manager Martin King said river takes for the Kakanui and Waianakarua rivers in North Otago were being rostered while in Central Otago the Lindis and Cardrona rivers were dry in some sections.
The Taieri River and rivers in south Otago were at low or close to minimum levels.
Land and Water Aotearoa said most Otago rain monitoring sites had between 50% and 90% of the medium rainfall for the month, which follows less rain than usual for December.
Environment Southland said 2017 was the driest year since 1971, with areas averaging just 79% of normal rain. October was the driest on record for that month with the region averaging 40% of normal rain.
That compounded a dry summer with 10 of the 15 aquifers monitored the lowest on record and river flows, especially on the coast, declining quickly.
The storm at Kaiaua on January 5 was perfect because a low pressure weather system matched exceptionally high tides and strong northeasterly winds funnelling down the Firth of Thames, Waikato Rural Support Trust member John Bubb said.
“It was also perfect in the sense that it brought some much-needed rain, which I was also welcoming on our farm until we got the news about the flooding in Kaiaua.”
Water as much as a metre deep had washed over farmland, affecting 40 rural properties, of which about half were operating farms.
In general, farmers handled the inundation well despite the high tide’s speed.
“There have been no stock losses that I know of but quite a bit of rubbish around the place and some minor structural damage but farmers also have been pretty positive.”
