Floods cost farmers $70m

parts of those areas, closing roads, washing out bridges, and leaving some paddocks underwater for weeks.

Civil Defence Minister Nikki Kaye has previously said the total cost was estimated at about $270m, making it less severe than the 2004 floods that cost more than $350m.

But Friday’s report is the first to take a close look at how farming was directly impacted, and also gives insight into why the damage was so bad.

A combination of heavy rainfall, land already saturated from a wet autumn and king tides on the Whanganui and Whangaehu rivers was behind some places having one-in-100-year floods, the report said.

Sheep and beef on-farm impact was estimated at $58m, with $20.6m of that down to production losses.

About 460 sheep and beef farms were impacted, — that is 34 per cent of commercial sheep and beef farms in Taranaki, Whanganui, Rangitikei and Manawatu – including 92 per cent of Whanganui’s 179 farms.

Erosion and silt had already caused $5.1m in lost production, with another $8.9m predicted.

Some of the losses were likely due to many landslides happening on north-facing slopes, which were generally higher-producing areas.

‘‘Stakeholders suggested that most of the slip areas would almost fully recover within five years.’’

There was also $2.6m in lost stock.

But there would be flow-on impacts, as stock could not be fed correctly before calving and lambing.

Dairy farms suffered $6.4m in on-farm economic loss, about half of that because of infrastructure damage.

The 36 worst affected farms would need 86 kilometres of fencing replaced, and 7000 hours of labour needed to clean up silt and debris.

Winter milking was mostly unaffected, as was forestry, while 3000 lost beehives would cost $2.5m to replace.

Crop losses were estimated at $1.2m, with most of that coming from potatoes that were unable to be harvested.

Primary Industries minister Nathan Guy said he was keeping a close eye on the region, and a big concern was making sure farmers were mentally strong during this time, and helping those who were struggling.

A $500,000 funding boost for rural mental health initiatives, announced in June, would see up to 100 support people trained to help those who need support, he said.