The floodwaters have ruined more than 90% of the station\u2019s flat productive land.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s really put a lot of pressure on our farming system,\u201d he says. \u201cThese flats are really our engine room and to not have that… there\u2019s probably 100ha of unproductive flats now.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big hit for the system.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll likely have to sell off stock earlier than planned and buy in supplementary feed. Based on previous flooding, Crosse estimates the financial cost of this one at about $100,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe clean-up is going to be the biggest part… being able to farm around this mess again. Support is huge and it can be quite lonely sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
His farm consultant has helped Crosse devise a plan, which includes using virtual fencing \u201cHalter\u201d collars on cows, to reduce the amount of fencing needed in flood-prone areas.<\/p>\n
He said five big floods in six years take their toll, but they\u2019re trying to stay positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done it time and time again,\u201d Crosse says. \u201cIt somewhat gets easier, but mentally, it\u2019s pretty challenging, and physically, it\u2019s very challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says more warnings are helpful for farmers, as there was little warning with this flood compared to Cyclone Vaianu, and all they can do otherwise is have plans in place to move stock and reduce fencing in areas that may get washed away.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s happened before and it\u2019ll happen again \u2013 we\u2019ve just got to make a plan,\u201d he says. \u201cWe get smarter, as we farm through more of these events.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Henry]()
Henry Warren of Waipari Station, Central Hawke’s Bay. Photo \/ Alexa Cook, RNZ<\/p>\n
A few kilometres upstream lies Waipari Station, which received nearly double the rainfall in some areas compared to 2023\u2019s Cyclone Gabrielle. It took a direct hit from the recent flooding, which caused widespread damage to crops, paddocks, fences and culverts, and lightning split a gum tree next to the house.<\/p>\n
Henry Warren grew up on the farm and says three years of cleaning up and re-fencing after Cyclone Gabrielle had just been finished. Now, they feel they\u2019re back at square one again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a real kick in the guts. We were just starting to build back up again and get back on track, then it all takes it away again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes you stop and wonder, \u2018Why do we bother?\u2019, and I\u2019m pretty early in my career, it\u2019s not flash.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of the farm\u2019s winter grazing is now covered with silt or pugged, new fences are ruined and at least four sheep drowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cJeremy picked up four of my ewes,\u201d Warren says. \u201cWe haven\u2019t got the mob in to count yet \u2013 I\u2019m dreading it a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were out the back with hills either side. I was expecting them to walk up out the way, but they didn\u2019t sadly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Insurance for floods is \u201cpretty tricky\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a certain amount, but the excess is really high. We do have stock insurance, but again, excess really high… about $5000 to $6000.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henry is now looking at major policy changes on farm to try to safeguard against future floods.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than finishing lambs, maybe we\u2019ll keep more to hill breeding country, which is a real shame.<\/p>\n
![\"Omakere]()
Omakere Hall flooded – again – in April. Photo \/ RNZ \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tricky to work out what the next step will be to fight against it,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve always worked on metric of work with Mother Nature, not against her, but she can be a bit annoying at times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Down the road, the 100-year-old Omakere Hall is in a sad state. It\u2019s been closed since last year, because of problems with mould after Cyclone Gabrielle flooding, and during Tuesday\u2019s flood it filled with water yet again.<\/p>\n
Omakere Hall committee chairman Gus Bell tells RNZ the floodwaters came up about 100mm inside, enough to ruin the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s mainly silty mud and water,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve managed to get insurance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have to replace the flooring and some of the interior walls up to a certain height, the way the water has absorbed into the panelling.\u201d<\/p>\n
The community is determined to save it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great hall, and it\u2019d be a shame to see it disintegrate or be left unkept,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The hall has flooded numerous times in its 100 years, as it sits in a low-lying area, but the hall committee is considering lifting it on to higher piles to protect against future floods.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re definitely looking at that,\u201d Bell says. \u201cWe\u2019ll hopefully look to finding some grants and see if we can raise some funds to raise the hall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt needs to come up half a metre to really make it floodproof for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis is definitely the worst I\u2019ve had in nearly six years, just damage-wise, the intensity, the rainfall,\u201d Crosse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4193,1561,1259,4194,22510,24925,2082,42125,1976,78,14571,1304,111,43,139,69,6115,1560,3175,223],"class_list":["post-406779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-alexa","tag-bay","tag-community","tag-cook","tag-damage","tag-flood","tag-for","tag-guts","tag-hawkes","tag-in","tag-kick","tag-morning","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-real","tag-report","tag-rural","tag-the"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}