Farmers to the rescue
Wairarapa farmers know how hard their neighbours to the north are doing and they are reaching out with the one thing that will help – feed for their stock.
South Wairarapa farmers Sophie and Dan Hansen have organised the Rapa Feed Run, to get desperately needed stockfeed up to Hawke’s Bay.
They have been overwhelmed with the response which has generated more than 10 truck-and-trailer loads of baleage in just four days.
When drought comes to the east coast it usually affects everyone from Wairarapa to northern Hawke’s Bay, but this year it was different.
In a cruel hand played by the weather gods, Hawke’s Bay missed out every time the rain clouds gathered nearby.
Wairarapa got around 200 millimetres of rainfall at the end of March and another 50mm last week, while Hawke’s Bay has only had a few millimetres all year.
‘‘That’s what saved us from being in the same predicament, and we were trying to think of ways we could help,’’ Sophie Hansen said.
The Rapa Feed Run started with an idea. ‘‘What if us and our neighbours all managed to put in a couple of bales.’’
From there, the donation tally had grown to more than 400 bales.
The couple both have their roots in ‘‘The Bay’’ and they know how difficult it is for friends and family on farms with no feed.
‘‘It’s just heart-breaking. There are so many stories where people are fighting to get through this situation and it’s hard to know where the end is.
‘‘I’ve got friends who have six dams on their properties and five are bone dry in the middle of May,’’ Hansen said.
The feed situation was so tight across the North Island that bales were more than twice the normal cost, when you could find them.
Federated Farmers Hawke’s Bay president Jim Galloway described the feed situation as ‘‘dire’’ and thought it was a wonderful initiative of their southern neighbours.
‘‘The thought that people are doing that for us is just brilliant. That will give a lot of people faith in human nature.
‘‘They know that people are thinking about them and have really pulled together, because Wairarapa hasn’t got a heap of feed themselves.’’