Knowing that he wasn’t going to get anywhere on his farm with wheels, when Gaddum could finally get out the gate to survey his farm, his only choice was to don his running shoes and run everywhere and that is exactly what he did.
With slippages and tracks unable to be accessed to two-thirds of the farm, running was Gaddum’s only mode of transport; enabling him to salvage a large roll of netting from some forestry fencing, which he used to block up some of the larger holes in fences, with the hope of keeping his deer on the right side of the fence.
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”How did you get your mind around recovery; where do you start when you get clobbered like that?” Mackay asked.
Gaddum realised that not everything can be fixed at once and over the following month he managed to get a lot of deer back and block up the holes in the boundary fence as best he could.
Stopping his deer from getting through the fence was his top priority because he knew getting them back would be arduous work, if not near impossible.
Internal fences had to wait and it was too slippery and wet to do much on them anyway.
Prioritising different jobs on his different blocks and organising contractors meant it was all go for a while.
He said the importance of community involvement was second to none, with neighbours and friends rallying around.
Farmstrong and The Rural Support Trust also helped Gaddum and other farmers from Kereru mitigate their way through it.
“It was quite an immense amount of support.”
As for running, the habit has stuck, and Gaddum now gets up around 5.30 am to run with his farming mates.
“We all like running and getting together for a bit of fitness — it’s a great thing to do.”
For free tools and resources on managing the ups and downs of farming visit www.farmstrong.co.nz.
