Not one farm sector is untouched by Nelson floods, with beekeepers, vegetable growers, dairy farmers and orchardists saying the real extent of damage will be known in a few weeks.
One Nelson dairy farmer and kiwifruit and apple grower real damage was caused to one of his farms that had 150 millimetres of rain on Friday night. He had more than 350mm of rain over the past week. His properties had a number of slips and he would spend the next two to three weeks on a digger clearing tracks and repairing bridges. It’ll be a long and dirty job to clean up from last week’s storm, as contractors near Rai Valley are finding out.
The same grower said a significant amount of water had run through two of his eight orchards but the damage to the trees should be limited because they were dormant this time of year. In a few weeks, trees would begin budding and he would be able to assess the real damage.
Source: stuff.co.nz