Farms in Taranaki bear brunt of weekend's deluge

Heavy rain in Taranaki at the weekend has caused huge damage to farms, washing away baleage and bridges.

Some farms in the region have reported getting 450 millimetres of rain in just 30 hours.

Taranaki Rural Support Trust chair Mike Green has been driving around the region over the last two days surveying the damage.

He estimates 100 farms have been affected mostly around Ōpunake and Rahotu in the west of the region.

"There's a lot of culverts gone, a few farms have lost bridges. One of the things that caused a lot of damage was the loss of the Parihaka culvert which has created a lot of flooding and more damage down stream.

"We're not aware of any stock losses but there's a lot of damage to fences, riparian planting has just disappeared, baleage and hay have been washed away and paddocks of crops have been washed away."

Green said a huge cleanup is needed but more rain is expected in the region this week.

"Once that passes the Rural Support Trust will put out the call for volunteers to help clean up affected farms.

"It was only last week we were having meetings about declaring a drought and now we are dealing with this," Green said.

He said some farms have become difficult to access so a lot of work is being done to ensure milk tankers can get through.

Fonterra regional head Taranaki Nicola McCarthy said it was great to get some much needed rain in Taranaki over the weekend, but so much at once put some pressure on milk collections.

"Weather-related road closures around the region caused some delays, but our business continuity plan kicked in and milk was picked up from all farms by yesterday evening."