Photo / Supplied / Mike Firth
South Wairarapa sheep and beef farmer Mike Firth knew there was a bit of rain on the way, he just didn't realise how much.
The forecast was originally for about 25mm of rain overnight but Firth ended up with 227mm.
At 5 am, the farm's rain gauge recorded a peak of 24mm per hour, he told The Country's Jamie Mackay.
"So – a fair bit of moisture."
The timing was difficult as Firth was a week into lambing, although he remained philosophical about the situation.
"It's a bit of a pain in the arse but such is farming – something's going to bite you in the arse somewhere along the way."
Firth runs 10,500 stock units on 1800 hectares of leased steep coastal hill country.
Most of Firth's lambing ewes were set-stocked on higher country; however the hoggets and younger stock were on the flats.
The unexpected deluge made it difficult to plan ahead, he said.
"The forecast wasn't for this; it was forecast for about 25 mm of rain overnight, so to have ten times that amount is a little bit hard to manage for."
He had already lost "a fair few ewes" out of a river paddock further towards town.
"I obviously didn't know the forecast was for this amount of rain and they were sitting in there waiting for a truck this week ... the person living down there sent me a few videos of them floating a little bit in the river.
"So I don't know my losses yet but I'll find out in another couple of days when I can get there."
Slips were also an issue, due to a "pretty typical old-fashioned winter," Firth said.
"It's wet, cold and that soil moisture level's so high it doesn't take much rain to fill 'er up and get it all running and flowing off and obviously the ground can only handle so much before it starts moving."
He said the ground began to shift about three weeks ago, causing slips, wiping out fences and even damaging the road.
"[There's] slips along the road, a few washouts … and further inland it's ripped up the tarseal as well."
At the time of the interview, the river still hadn't receded, he said.
"It's still flowing down the road at the moment, so no one will really know the damage until that subsides."
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