Sleepless nights and busy days for Cantab farmers

On Monday, May 24 the long-range forecast showed some pretty serious rainfall on the way. We were hopeful it would ease over the ensuing days but two days later there was no change.

No warnings were out at this stage and we were worried some farmers might not be aware of what was coming at them.

We don’t normally do weather alerts, but decided to send out an email to our Canterbury Federated Farmers members, so they could start preparing.

On Thursday the

‘‘red alert’’ was announced. If the forecast was right, this was going to be big. Over the next few days farmers focused on getting stock on the highest ground available and moving feed close for ease of access.

The forecast was spot on and, in some places, underestimated the level of rain. At ours, we were forecast for around 200mm ending up with about 270mm.

We live in Whitecliffs, up the top end of the Selwyn River, so I was keeping a close eye on the river flows through Saturday and Sunday.

Overnight the flow was increasing at an exponential rate. It was a sleepless night worrying and waiting for light. My thoughts were racing: it has to slow down soon, are our animals OK, is our house going to flood? At first light we were out the door and checking our fences and stock. We have a stream that feeds into the Selwyn along our back boundary. It was no longer a stream.

We were worried about losing trees and fence lines as the now river was cutting into our property. We knew we had fence damage, as long as it didn’t come too much higher, we were confident we would be OK. My thoughts shifted to those around us.

‘‘We have to go to Richie, we have to check,’’ I said to my partner. There was a small block down the road I was particularly worried about. Would their land be high enough, would their cows be out of the floodwaters? It wasn’t. Their whole place, bar one small corner was now part of the Selwyn River. The owners were there, and we joined them.

‘‘Wire cutters are on the way, and the neighbours said we can put our cows in his paddock across the road,’’ we were informed.

The farmer had a plan to cross into the now river in his tractor, cut the fences and then push his cows across to join his other small herd which was on dry ground. We nervously watched as they made their way across in the tractor, stopping to cut the first fence, then the second.

But would the cows go where he needed them to? There was a moment when some tried to cut back behind him as he was now wading through thigh-deep water, but then most of them turned and started wading through the flood towards the smaller herd on dry land. ‘‘Please don’t get tangled in the cut fences,’’ I was thinking.

There was a deeper channel they had to swim through before they could get to safety, I lost sight of a smaller calf as it was submerged underwater. My heart leapt into my throat. It popped back up and made a giant effort to swim to the other side, landing a small way downstream. They were across safely, people included. I could breathe again. We helped walk them down the road to the neighbours and put them on a big hill. No way they could get flooded there. The owner kept saying ‘‘it’s never been like that down there, I’ve never seen that, I thought they were safe’’.

He had put them on his highest ground. He was a bit shaken but relieved to have his cows safe and thankful for the help. This was so much bigger than any of us expected.

This sort of scenario – and scenes even more dire – were playing out across the province.

The rain has stopped and the waters are slowly subsiding. Over the next week we will work on assessing the damage and putting help where it is most needed.

We will continue to do what farmers do so well – working together to support each other and our communities. The outpouring of support and help for affected farmers has been overwhelming and so appreciated.

Recovery is going to take a while, there is a lot of work to do.

I lost sight of a smaller calf as it was submerged underwater. My heart leapt into my throat. It popped back up and made a giant effort to swim to the other side.