Northland farmers without power forced to defer milking

Mohammed Jamal, a dairy farmer at Pouto Peninsula, waits for power to come back on so he can resume milking. Photo / Supplied

Northland dairy farmers were among the worst affected by the foul weather forcing some to cancel milking after power went out in parts of the region.

Some farmers were part-way through milking yesterday morning when they lost power and had to wait hours before it came back on.

The worst of the storm in Northland was expected to ease last night and a few showers were expected today.Clear weather is predicted over the weekend and early next week.

Mohammed Jamal, a dairy farmer at Pouto Peninsula, managed to milk 250 out of 420 cows when power went out about 6.20am yesterday.

He rang Northpower but said the lines company was not sure when electricity would be restored.

"We've had outages in the past and most of the times power was back on within half an hour or so but this is the longest it has been out for."

Power was back on in his herringbone milking shed about 10.30am.

Mr Jamal said apart from the inconvenience, power outages have the potential to cause mastitis — persistent, inflammatory reaction of the udder tissue— in cows that either haven't been milked or only partially milked.

Federated Farmers Northland dairy chairman Ashley Cullen said farmers affected by power outage could make arrangements with Fonterra for their milk pickup to be deferred.

However, he said the upside of the stormy weather was that farmers got much-needed rain.

"The rain is not heavy, not too light. It's good soaking rain which is absolutely perfect for pasture and for crops. It's a good start to the new year," he said.

A Fonterra spokeswoman said all milk pickups in Northland yesterday had gone as scheduled.

She said farms predicted to be in the path of the storm had milk collected in advance on Thursday.

Strong winds and heavy rain also forced the cancellation of two Air New Zealand flights from Whangarei and Kerikeri yesterday morning and customers were rebooked on alternative services. No other flights were affected.