Federated Farmers update: Rural Canterbury seems okay

Following a Federated Farmers initiated emergency text alert, initial reports from provincial leaders and from members, indicates that while the shaking from the recent swarm of earthquakes was violent, it has not caused damage to key farm infrastructure or utilities.

“Following the earthquake, Federated Farmers sent all members a member advisory and backed that up with a text alert,” says Neil Stott, Federated Farmers North Canterbury provincial president

“Our main concerns revolved around utilities and what the shaking did to grain silos; the two things most impacted by last year’s Darfield earthquake.

“After checking with the provincial executive and with David Broome, our head of communications, it seems that while people were shaken, damage has been mercifully light. We even had a reply come in from a member in London who only learnt of the earthquakes from our text alert.

“This is not to say that there has been no damage to pasture from liquefaction. Hopefully, we’ll get a better idea of things in the coming days because this is our busiest time of the year on-farm.

“The key thing for us is that grain silos seem to be intact We need to caution that if anyone spots things looking precarious, then they must ring a contractor or Federated Farmers North Canterbury grain and seed chairperson, Murray Rowlands. His details are below.

“The other area of concern was electricity and what the quakes did to milking platforms. Our dairy members are in peak milking right now and given the time of year, it would have hard to get through if there were 2010 levels of damage.

“Thankfully Kieran Stone, our North Canterbury Dairy chairperson, has had members ring in and has made contact around the province. All seems okay at this stage but if members are having issues, they should make contact with Kieran and his details are also below.

“Federated Farmers National Office made contact with Mainpower and they said that aside some lines crossing, there was no damage to electricity infrastructure. Any outage was likely to be local and quickly fixed.

“I have also spoken to some of our Banks Peninsula members who appreciated the prompt contact Federated Farmers made with them. They have been knocked about but damage to farm and above all self is light. The main concern we have is to the already frayed nerves.

“Can I also take this chance to say that our thoughts and prayers again go out to affected residents in Christchurch,” Mr Stott concluded.

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