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Federated Farmers asks for adverse event declaration

Wednesday 22 September 2010, 6:47PM

By Federated Farmers of New Zealand

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SOUTHLAND

The spring storm of 2010 in Southland looks set to surpass the economic loss caused to agriculture by the Canterbury earthquake. Federated Farmers is now working with the Minister of Agriculture on a medium scale adverse event declaration.

“Sheep and beef farmers have spent the last 360 days preparing to have their stock in the best possible condition to lamb, only for all that effort to be undone by five days of sustained storms,” says David Rose, Federated Farmers Adverse Events spokesperson and a Southland sheep and beef farmer.

“I realise there are some people in town who don’t understand that sheep and cattle live outdoors. Farmers pushed back lambing into spring to reduce risk, so we find this incredibly upsetting and distressing because every stock death like this gets to us.

“Economically, we’re also seeing a massive loss of our 2010/11 crop and on the worst affected farms, valuable breeding ewes as well. You simply cannot make up these losses.

“The spring storm of 2010 is frankly the worst in a generation with farmers going back over 50 years for anything this bad.

“The last big dump of snow we had was fourteen years ago in the winter of 1996, while the last time we had anything this severe was 38 years ago, in 1972.

“Farmers are doing their utmost to keep stock alive but these weather systems have been unrelenting. It’s a combination of oscillating driving wind, snow and rain that is doing the most damage to stock as well as sapping energy from farmers.

“It’s important for urban residents to know that an adverse event declaration does not trigger cash hand-outs, as some may think. The losses we are suffering come directly off our bottom line and this is creating a lot of added stress on top of fatigue.

“This is why Federated Farmers is working with the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon David Carter, on a medium scale adverse event declaration. I estimate half the farms in Southland could be affected - around 800 - but that’s a guess because farmers right now are just trying to get by.

“I welcome Minister Carter coming to Southland tomorrow where he is visiting the farm of Federated Farmers President, Don Nicolson and other affected farmers.

“At 12.30pm, both Minister Carter and Don Nicolson will be joined by Federated Farmers Southland provincial president, Rod Pemberton. The biggest thing an adverse event declaration gives us is access to advice from the Rural Support Trust and recognition, this event is one out of the box,” Mr Rose concluded.