November 4, 2025 • 8 mins
Simon Hopcroft of Southland Rural Support Trust updates the situation almost two weeks on from the massive wind events.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Injun Simon Hotcraft is chair of South and a Mural
Support Trust and joins us this afternoon. Now. We teamed
up with South and Nural Support Trust about this time
(00:23):
last year after the spring we had and once again
due to the weather conditions with the wind and the
damage and everything that's gone on, we're catching up with
the team once again for the next couple of weeks
here on the mustard, talking about different things happening on
farm regarding different sectors of the farming landscape. We're hearing
from vets, we're hearing from experts, and we're just going
to get a bit of a gauge just about just
(00:45):
give you some tips to suppose as you look forward
into the next four or six weeks and lead up
to Christmas. After what has been a devastating couple of weeks. Simon,
I'll welcome you win once again. Always good to chat.
It's been a pretty full on couple of weeks down
here in the South.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It has definitely were sort of what do we day
sort of thirteen host event, and yeah, everyone's sort of
moved out of that sort of response, I suppose and
into recovery. This week's whether lots better and has been
better the last couple of days, which is helping out
with people's morale. But yeah, it's been an interesting sort
(01:23):
of the last twelve days. Really.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, I suppose there's a lot of hot takes that
people can take from this, but at the moment, it's
all about getting the cows milked and dairy sense in
a sheet and beef system, getting the fences up and
running so using lambs aren't running about. But there's a
lot you've got to take on board at the moment
if you've had severe damage done to your fences or
to your farm in general. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Absolutely, And I think the best thing that we've found
is making sure that farms farm businesses are being able
to sort of come up with a plan of how
they're going to deal with that and just trying to
get that sort of clear head first. That's I think
we're starting to see people this week start to get
(02:03):
a bit of action around getting some of those plans
in place and actually starting to see some contractors going
into some of those majorly affected farms to make a start. Unfortunately,
it's going to be a long tail on this, given
the extent of number of trees down et cetera. But basically,
(02:25):
I think everyone that sort of can get that plan
together will feel better about that, and then it's just
a time frame I think priority. You know, obviously, you know,
when it initially happened, we were running around even in
our own farm business, trying to work out the plan
for our generation for power. So running between two dairy
(02:48):
farms which are an air and a quarter apart with
one generator just didn't work. We managed to sneak through,
but you know, so all those sort of little things
you look back on and go, how could we sort
of be prepared.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
From a rural support trust perspective, CYB. And how have
people coped over the last thirteen days?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, pretty good, Andy, You know, like anything, it's sort
of at adrenaline Caxson. First, First of all, it was
really around for us as the communication network obviously was battling,
and for us to try and get a gauge on
what the province was looking like. You know, I was
in my little bubble here at Gummy's Bush trying to
work out, you know, if this had been a widespread
(03:29):
event or not. Within that first couple of hours we
sort of started to get some information around it. Was widespread,
so you know, people have you know, then sort of
ran on adrenaline through those periods, in particular, you know,
those requiring that energy to milk cow. So generation capability
(03:52):
was limited within the dairy sector in southam and in
South Otago. So so I was just trying to coordinate it,
but of a plan around that, and then you know
that that was sort of priority on a rural sense,
and then just trying to identify, I guess across the
(04:12):
province where those you know, those worst effective farmers were,
and trying to get some support in there. And I
think once again it was just relying on their communities
to sort of look out for each other. And you
know that's once again this time last year, we've done
the same thing. We're just sort of we were there
(04:33):
to sort of make sure that those rural communities were
looking out for each other and then also just making
sure we were helping out where we could really.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And let's just frommember side, and there are still people
without power. The figures out late last night one hundred
and fifteen households in the South of Farms and the
Likes without power, still two hundred and five in the
Targo So this would be a moving figure obviously, but
nonetheless there are still people going this long and having
to put up with generators and the likes.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Oh absolutely any and what to knowledge knows it had
power outages for a long period and still have you know,
they are still chipping away without that connection, and you know,
we just to make sure that they are being well
supported within their communities and year also making sure that
(05:22):
we're connecting within ourselves. I think, yeah, on average, you know,
in this particular in the dairy, they were probably on
average anyone that last power might have been out without
it for around that sort of seventy two seventy two hours,
so that you know, that was a significant differential to
(05:44):
what we've seen in past times where we might have
had isolated outages for you know, twelve to twenty four.
So that's really given us some you know step back
and go, how how are we how are we prepared?
And then then our own business we weren't that well prepared.
So you know, I was feeling guilty after the day
(06:07):
one that some of our staff houses didn't actually have
you know, we had limited generation and those staff didn't
have access to to that power. So once again you know,
you've got got to stand back and actually take a
bit of self responsibility here and look at your own
businesses and go take the you know, take the oarnings
(06:28):
out of this and see if we can become a
bit more prepared. And you know that also would help across,
you know, across other agencies such as the Real Support
Trust that you know that takes that pressure off having
to deal with that situation.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Now, there's a number of events that are happening, community events,
barbecues and the likes getting people to reconnect some and
you talked about catching up your neighbors, but likes of
Real Support Trust. You've got your Real Writers happening every Wednesday.
That must be happening again to night. We'll get the
dates on that before the end of the show. Serving
for farmers starting up at the end of November, and
(07:05):
I think of anything, this just teaches people that you
need to take time of farm and have a work
life balance.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Right, Yeah, definitely, Andy, And you know it's always been
a big part for us making sure that we're trying,
you know, as a Real Support Trust is make sure
we're trying to get people connected. And we sort of
rolled out some events last week and there's some more
this week, as you've mentioned. But I guess it's just
really those empowering those royal communities to look out for
(07:33):
each other and once again they have and you know,
making that I guess that's making that decision to actually
make an effort to go because you know, once you
get along, you think you haven't got time, but actually
get along and have a catch and a chat for
an hour or two and you can go away feeling
a bit better and you know, and actually everyone's you know,
(07:55):
realized that everyone's it's sort of in the same bait.
So you know, that's that's been a big part of
for us, is that connection and the support trying's done
a great job comms wise to make sure that she's
promoting events that others are having and also promoting events
that we're having. So you please get along.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Good one, you Simon, thanks for your time as always,
Thanks so much. Iscase Sybon Hotcraft of South and Ural
Support Trust. Now that number for South and Ural Support
Trust if you want to have a yarn I eight
hundred Rural Help I eight hundred and seven eight seven
two five four. Remembering a problem shared can be a
(08:36):
problem halved. Next, we're catching up Brenton Halden. You're listening
to the muster
Injun Simon Hotcraft is chair of South and a Mural
Support Trust and joins us this afternoon. Now. We teamed
up with South and Nural Support Trust about this time
(00:23):
last year after the spring we had and once again
due to the weather conditions with the wind and the
damage and everything that's gone on, we're catching up with
the team once again for the next couple of weeks
here on the mustard, talking about different things happening on
farm regarding different sectors of the farming landscape. We're hearing
from vets, we're hearing from experts, and we're just going
to get a bit of a gauge just about just
(00:45):
give you some tips to suppose as you look forward
into the next four or six weeks and lead up
to Christmas. After what has been a devastating couple of weeks. Simon,
I'll welcome you win once again. Always good to chat.
It's been a pretty full on couple of weeks down
here in the South.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It has definitely were sort of what do we day
sort of thirteen host event, and yeah, everyone's sort of
moved out of that sort of response, I suppose and
into recovery. This week's whether lots better and has been
better the last couple of days, which is helping out
with people's morale. But yeah, it's been an interesting sort
(01:23):
of the last twelve days. Really.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, I suppose there's a lot of hot takes that
people can take from this, but at the moment, it's
all about getting the cows milked and dairy sense in
a sheet and beef system, getting the fences up and
running so using lambs aren't running about. But there's a
lot you've got to take on board at the moment
if you've had severe damage done to your fences or
to your farm in general. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Absolutely, And I think the best thing that we've found
is making sure that farms farm businesses are being able
to sort of come up with a plan of how
they're going to deal with that and just trying to
get that sort of clear head first. That's I think
we're starting to see people this week start to get
(02:03):
a bit of action around getting some of those plans
in place and actually starting to see some contractors going
into some of those majorly affected farms to make a start. Unfortunately,
it's going to be a long tail on this, given
the extent of number of trees down et cetera. But basically,
(02:25):
I think everyone that sort of can get that plan
together will feel better about that, and then it's just
a time frame I think priority. You know, obviously, you know,
when it initially happened, we were running around even in
our own farm business, trying to work out the plan
for our generation for power. So running between two dairy
(02:48):
farms which are an air and a quarter apart with
one generator just didn't work. We managed to sneak through,
but you know, so all those sort of little things
you look back on and go, how could we sort
of be prepared.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
From a rural support trust perspective, CYB. And how have
people coped over the last thirteen days?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, pretty good, Andy, You know, like anything, it's sort
of at adrenaline Caxson. First, First of all, it was
really around for us as the communication network obviously was battling,
and for us to try and get a gauge on
what the province was looking like. You know, I was
in my little bubble here at Gummy's Bush trying to
work out, you know, if this had been a widespread
(03:29):
event or not. Within that first couple of hours we
sort of started to get some information around it. Was widespread,
so you know, people have you know, then sort of
ran on adrenaline through those periods, in particular, you know,
those requiring that energy to milk cow. So generation capability
(03:52):
was limited within the dairy sector in southam and in
South Otago. So so I was just trying to coordinate it,
but of a plan around that, and then you know
that that was sort of priority on a rural sense,
and then just trying to identify, I guess across the
(04:12):
province where those you know, those worst effective farmers were,
and trying to get some support in there. And I
think once again it was just relying on their communities
to sort of look out for each other. And you
know that's once again this time last year, we've done
the same thing. We're just sort of we were there
(04:33):
to sort of make sure that those rural communities were
looking out for each other and then also just making
sure we were helping out where we could really.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And let's just frommember side, and there are still people
without power. The figures out late last night one hundred
and fifteen households in the South of Farms and the
Likes without power, still two hundred and five in the
Targo So this would be a moving figure obviously, but
nonetheless there are still people going this long and having
to put up with generators and the likes.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Oh absolutely any and what to knowledge knows it had
power outages for a long period and still have you know,
they are still chipping away without that connection, and you know,
we just to make sure that they are being well
supported within their communities and year also making sure that
(05:22):
we're connecting within ourselves. I think, yeah, on average, you know,
in this particular in the dairy, they were probably on
average anyone that last power might have been out without
it for around that sort of seventy two seventy two hours,
so that you know, that was a significant differential to
(05:44):
what we've seen in past times where we might have
had isolated outages for you know, twelve to twenty four.
So that's really given us some you know step back
and go, how how are we how are we prepared?
And then then our own business we weren't that well prepared.
So you know, I was feeling guilty after the day
(06:07):
one that some of our staff houses didn't actually have
you know, we had limited generation and those staff didn't
have access to to that power. So once again you know,
you've got got to stand back and actually take a
bit of self responsibility here and look at your own
businesses and go take the you know, take the oarnings
(06:28):
out of this and see if we can become a
bit more prepared. And you know that also would help across,
you know, across other agencies such as the Real Support
Trust that you know that takes that pressure off having
to deal with that situation.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Now, there's a number of events that are happening, community events,
barbecues and the likes getting people to reconnect some and
you talked about catching up your neighbors, but likes of
Real Support Trust. You've got your Real Writers happening every Wednesday.
That must be happening again to night. We'll get the
dates on that before the end of the show. Serving
for farmers starting up at the end of November, and
(07:05):
I think of anything, this just teaches people that you
need to take time of farm and have a work
life balance.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Right, Yeah, definitely, Andy, And you know it's always been
a big part for us making sure that we're trying,
you know, as a Real Support Trust is make sure
we're trying to get people connected. And we sort of
rolled out some events last week and there's some more
this week, as you've mentioned. But I guess it's just
really those empowering those royal communities to look out for
(07:33):
each other and once again they have and you know,
making that I guess that's making that decision to actually
make an effort to go because you know, once you
get along, you think you haven't got time, but actually
get along and have a catch and a chat for
an hour or two and you can go away feeling
a bit better and you know, and actually everyone's you know,
(07:55):
realized that everyone's it's sort of in the same bait.
So you know, that's that's been a big part of
for us, is that connection and the support trying's done
a great job comms wise to make sure that she's
promoting events that others are having and also promoting events
that we're having. So you please get along.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Good one, you Simon, thanks for your time as always,
Thanks so much. Iscase Sybon Hotcraft of South and Ural
Support Trust. Now that number for South and Ural Support
Trust if you want to have a yarn I eight
hundred Rural Help I eight hundred and seven eight seven
two five four. Remembering a problem shared can be a
(08:36):
problem halved. Next, we're catching up Brenton Halden. You're listening
to the muster
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