Entire truckload to deliver hay bales from Awanui to Hawke’s Bay farmers struggling post-cyclone

From left, Waiata Kitchen (Jones Hay), Ella (Sweetwater Construction) and Stace (The Honey Trap) stand with the hay bales and donated items set for Hawke's Bay later today.

After seeing the destruction of Cyclone Gabrielle on their fellow farmers, one Far North hay company is set to send a truckload of free hay from Awanui to Hawke’s Bay today.

Jones Hay owner Johnnie Jones and manager Waiata Kitchen, with the help of Mangonui Haulage, has donated a semi-trailer full of hay bales and other items donated by Kaitaia residents.

Kitchen said this summer season had been the worst on record due to extensive rainfall off the back of a very wet winter.

After witnessing the destruction to farmlands in Hawke’s Bay, Kitchen said she had put the call out for a local truck to transport the much-needed hay to the region.

“We were so heartbroken for our fellow farmers, their families, their animals, and everyone affected in Hawke’s Bay - especially on the tail end of an already horrible season,” Kitchen said.

“The response was massive and in less than six hours Mangonui Haulage had offered their curtain sider to carry the $6000 worth of hay.

“These are dark times in the farming community, but we escaped relatively unscathed up here, so to see this happen to a lot of people already struggling is devastating.”

Kitchen said the majority of her clients were in the equine industry, who had lost not only feed but livestock.

With large volumes of water and silt now on farms, Kitchen said farmers would be unable to graze their paddocks due to pathogens in the ground.

She said the flow-on effects of this could potentially last years.

As one of the largest hay suppliers in the Far North, Kitchen said the pressure was therefore on to gather as much hay as possible before winter.

“I’ve never had a season where I’ve been lying in bed at night in a blind panic worried we can’t produce enough of our product,” Kitchen said.

“For the next 10 days, all my staff are going to go hell and high water to get it done as it may be the last sunny block we have.

“I’m praying we get extreme volume done so we can take care of everyone.”

In response to last week’s destruction of farmland around the country, the Government announced the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and Federated Farmers would restart the national Feed Coordination Service to help farmers recovering from Cyclone Gabrielle.

The service would immediately provide $4 million to help farmers, growers, whenua Māori owners and rural communities mobilise and co-ordinate cyclone recovery efforts.

It would be operated by Federated Farmers, with funding support from MPI to assist farmers to source supplementary feed or grazing.

The national Feed Coordination Service will help match people with grazing or supplementary feed for sale to those who needed it.

“Widespread flooding and winds from Cyclone Gabrielle have damaged pastures and crops, or swept away bales of feed,” Federated Farmers chief executive Terry Copeland said.

“It is a tough time for many farmers, especially those in Northland, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, and this is a practical way to provide support.

“Having a national Feed Coordination Service has proved valuable in the past, including during the widespread drought in 2020 and the Canterbury floods in 2021, and we encourage farmers to use it.”

Areas rural of Northland are still struggling with flooding, power outages and slips a week after the cyclone hit the area.

According to the Minister for Agriculture, Damien O’Connor, up to 50 per cent of kumara crops had been destroyed in Northland.

“Yesterday I visited growers in Northland in kumara-growing areas, where the impacts on the annual crops will be quite severe.”

O’Connor told RNZ last week there would be more support needed as they uncovered the true extent of damage.

“There will be additional funding and Government has already announced that through MSD [the Ministry of Social Development], there is direct support for those people who need it,” he said.

Requests to list or seek grazing or feed can be made online or by phoning 0800 FARMING (0800 327 646).