Kaikōura farmer loses fences, feed week out from start of milking

RNZ

A Kaikōura farmer says eight days out from starting milking, he has no power or water lines on his farm, he's lost fences and feed, and half his paddocks are covered in silt and trees.

Three rivers cross Adam McManaway's farm on Schoolhouse Road and he says all of them breached their banks in Tuesday's torrential rain, including one in three places.

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McManaway said his property appears to have been among the hardest hit in the area.

"The forecast was predicting a lot of rain, but it was more than what I had expected ... it's done quite a lot of damage," he said.

McManaway said the floodwaters swept away about 25-30 hay bales.

"I saw a couple of videos that people put up yesterday of them going under the bridge in town heading out to sea."

His electric fences were not working and about half his fences were missing in total - although he was fortunate that his heifers were virtually fenced in with halter collars.

McManaway said there was a significant amount of work ahead.

"It's not looking good. It's going to be hard.

"We'll just work a plan to try and fix as much as we can and see what we can sort out before the cows come home."

He said the council, neighbours and local businesses have offered a helping hand.

"We've got three diggers now starting to try and contain the river and a bulldozer up there now and they're bringing in two or three more diggers and a couple more bulldozers to start rebuilding the track and getting the stock bank built again."

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This story was first published on rnz.co.nz