Napier deluge is farmers’ delight
For most Hawke’s Bay farmers still recovering from this year’s drought, the heavy downpour brought relief.
Federated Farmers Hawke’s Bay president Jim Galloway said the rain would have made a “massive difference”.
“This has put quite a bit of water into the system and will last us a while.
“Everyone’s pretty happy.” He said the fact the soil was so dry underneath meant the high volume of rainfall hadn’t caused any major damage or flooding on farms.
“[The water had] just soaked in.
“Normally this time of year with that much rain there’d be flooding and stuff underwater.
“Everyone I talk to on the hills said it’s done a hell of a lot more good than harm.”
Rainfall across the region varied considerably.
“Between 90 and 150mm of rain seem to be the common figures,” Galloway said.
For areas surrounding Hastings, the amount of rainfall was higher than typically expected, while for those in the foothills of the ranges — Patoka and Tikokino — the rain was badly needed to get them to normal.
The high volume of rain proved too much for some in the horticulture and cropping industries down in the flats, though.
“There’s some water lying in some of the paddocks and that will have done some damage to the crops.”
With parts of paddocks flooded, and some needing to resow crops, Galloway expected there would be an impact on the yields of some horticulture crops.
Havelock North-based Strawberry Patch owners Ian and Maree Tucker said the rain had caused “a bit of rot” in their crop.
“It could have been worse,” she said.
“We’ll get through it,” Tucker said