It’s been an incredibly tough time for farmers affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. For many, the recovery will be long and challenging.  We thought it would be helpful to hear from one farmer who’s been through something similar and can talk about what the recovery looked like.

Dean Bailey was sharemilking in Manawatu when, in February 2004, a devastating flooding event left his farm submerged beneath two metres of water. It was six months before they were milking cows again on the farm. Dean will talk about how the recovery unfolded, the importance of good communication, rallying together as a community, and taking it one day at a time.
 
Michelle Greaves, a Regional Partner in DairyNZ’s Lower North Island Team, also joins us to talk about DairyNZ’s role in the response and recovery, and provide advice on how farmers can prepare for the seasons ahead.

Notes

• Cyclone response - DairyNZ
  
  
• Decision tree for flood damaged farms: https://www.dairynz.co.nz/media/5787035/flood-damaged-farm-decision-tree.pdf 
  
  
• Government grants and funds: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/55630-Cyclone-Gabrielle-farmer-and-grower-recovery-grants 
  
  
• Completing a feed budget: https://www.dairynz.co.nz/feed/improving-pasture-performance/assessing-farm-performance/feed-budgets/

Chapters

1:18 - Intro to Dean
1:41 - How Dean’s been affected by Cyclone Gabrielle
3:30 - Dean's been speaking with Hawke’s Bay farmers hit by the cyclone
3:48 - ‘Taken out of farming’ in the Manawatu floods of 2004, and how they recovered: what worked well, keeping morale up
9:14 - Dean discusses support organisations, talking to mates, getting through it as a community, and keeping the cows in lactation
12:05 - Deciding what to prioritise in each day of the recovery
15:30 - Dean’s advice for Cyclone Gabrielle-affected farmers
17:45 - Ways to make a farm and business resilient to the effects of extreme weather events, e.g. positioning fencing to run with the water
20:00 - Michelle discusses key support avenues and tools to help farmers recovering from an adverse event
22:15 - What Michelle’s hearing from farmers in affected regions: power, fuel and water supply, roading access, cows dried off, stock movement, infrastructure 
25:25 - Dealing with the silt
26:33 - What’s DairyNZ’s role in the response and recovery?
29:30 - Resilience of dairy farmers, and advice for farmers on preparing for future extreme weather events (contingency plans, generators, means of communication, fuel storage) 

Have feedback or ideas for future episodes? Email us at [email protected]

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