Earthquakes, Trump and days of wild weather

Wow, what a rough time we in New Zealand and the world are having at present. Yes, like most other New Zealanders I was woken at 12.02am in Stratford by the massive earthquake that hit the Kaikoura region, and wasn’t it scary as it seemed to go on for ever.

Our hearts go out to those folk in North Canterbury and in particular those folk isolated in Kaikoura and other areas who will need our collective help over the coming months, maybe years.

Initially we never heard too much about the problems in Wellington but now every day they seemed to be getting more bad news.

I do congratulate Prime Minister John Key and his team for their quick response to this disaster. However by the time one reads this column people will be rescued, roads and rail will be on the mend, cowsheds will be back on their rollers with the cows being milked and we all will be getting back into our daily routine again.

Wasn’t it also great to see Parliament - on Tuesday, November 15 - allocate time to allow MPs to collectively speak and show their support for the actions taken by our Government who have indicated they will do whatever is necessary to help those people effected and in their "hour of need".

My wife and I did travel through Molesworth Station, Hanmer Springs, Culverden and stayed in Kaikoura 20 months ago so we now know what a beautiful area it is, but how vulnerable they are to such a devastating earthquake.

This is a reminder to us all that we in New Zealand do live on a fault line and of the risks we all take every day. In the same respect we in Taranaki live each day under the threat of a doormat volcano.

The other big news of the last few weeks was of course the American elections. I’m not sitting in either camp but predict that Donald Trump’s rhetoric will need to be modified. When he sits down with his whole team of advisors whose job is to advise him and tell him what he should or should not do I believe we will see some back tracking, with some already happening.

I have said in a previous column I have witnessed some who have stood for a local council with the prime purpose of: "I’m going to sort you b*****ds out", only to find out when they get elected that they simply had not done their homework well and it was nothing like they had thought.

Donald Trump may well find the same but the scary thing is that there seems a lot of disillusioned Americans who believe they need change so hopefully they have got it right. Only time will tell. America is important to New Zealand. But I’m sure I speak for many when I say thank goodness the American elections are over as they have dominated our news for too long.

When I started to write this column I looked out the window only to see the pouring rain and howling wind and it makes me think of my fellow farmers with this continuous wet weather. If you are a non-farmer spare a thought for all those trying to cope with saturated pastures, where to put the cows next, how to repair all the pugging, not enough fine weather to get silage in the pit and the list goes on and on. Just imagine milking 500 to 1000 cows daily and nothing but those soaked paddocks to put your cows in. Fortunately the weather has improved for a few days and contractors were flat out with silage.

I hear milk production is down by approximately 15 per cent in many places because of the inclement weather which is no surprise. This is I believe one of the reasons at two recent dairy auctions the prices increased because of the belief there will become a world shortage. Another of those areas to "watch this space" but it’s certainly good news for our dairy farmers and in fact all New Zealand.

I will add that during my lifetime of farming I have experienced ups and downs in payout, yet survived. I have also experienced seasons of ups and downs but amazingly if we get bad weather somewhere during the season we will get some good weather to balance the year out.

This is one of the things that keeps our farmers going - the expectation it can only get better.