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Heavy rainfall over the weekend has come at a less-than-ideal time for farmers mid-calving and just before lambing in the Tararua District.
There were about 120 millimetres of rain across the district over four days - with up to 20mm an hour during Sunday's downpour peaks.
Damien Reynolds farms sheep and beef across 900 hectares of hill country 3 kilometres south of Pahiatua along the Makakahi River.
Reynolds said they woke up on Sunday morning to find the flats flooded and the river rising very fast - but fortunately they'd moved cattle up into the hills with the ewes in time.
He said though the river was likely coming off its peak, there was lots of water about.
"Extremely wet and a lot of surface flooding, let alone the high river. So the high river has sort of dispersed onto our neighbour's flats across the river," he said.
"It's the surface flooding and it's the sogginess, and not being able to graze paddocks now and [we] have to look at different options for where the stock goes."
He said it was a significant event with the river remaining high for about 24 hours - meanwhile, the stock were on higher ground.
"All those stock are off the winter crops, which makes it difficult for a while until they can get back on them.
"Fortunately, the main flooding event was during daylight hours, so we were all able to react and the neighbours and the dairy farmers there on the flats are able to react as well."
Meanwhile, the district's Federated Farmers provincial president Thomas Read said he hadn't heard of impacted farmers just yet - though with plenty of warning, there was time to move stock to higher ground.
But he said the timing wasn't great.
"Yes the excess rain has been troubling, for the farmers, as dairy farmers are calving and sheep and beef are heading into lambing," he said.
MetService is forecasting some rainfall later this afternoon, which will ease in the coming days.