22 | Storm damage ‘will take years’ to fix Storm damage at Longview in Hawke’s Bay. Karen Phelps The Stoddart family is still fixing damage to their family farming operation in southern Hawke’s Bay caused by Cyclone Gabrielle. But Brad Stoddart remains pragmatic: “The main thing is to realise we’re lucky – there were a lot of people affected much worse than us. You just have to carry on,” he says. The farm comprises two blocks of land in Porangahau, located around 20 minutes apart, and Brad says each block was affected differently. The home farm, Longview, comprises 1240ha and is used as a breeding unit for the family’s sheep and beef operation. It suffered slips and land, track and fence damage with around 7-8km of fencing needing to be repaired. “We’re slowly chipping away at it but it will take years to get the farm back to what it was,” says Brad. “It takes longer to do most things and stock got mixed up. “We’ve secured boundary fencing and are now working on individual paddocks. Around 90% are stock proof now thanks to patch ups but we need to re-align all those fences and do them properly. “We also had a really wet winter so it was hard to get a motorbike around the farm let alone a tractor to fix fencing, which has made things difficult.” The finishing block, called Oakbourne, is 410ha and Brad says the water came up so high it flattened fences and literally sucked them out of the ground. “We have managed to go around with a digger and stand them back up and push them back into the ground. So now we are starting to go around to fix all of them properly over coming years.” The farms run 14,200 stock unit with 60% Romney sheep and the remainder in Angus cattle. The family is also focusing on slowly improving the finishing operation and a key part will be employing an additional staff member in order to intensify slightly. The farm currently employs one full time and one part time worker along with Brad and father Mike helping out. Everything the family breeds gets finished on the finishing block meaning no need to buy in stock. RURAL PEOPLE » Longview They are also focusing on getting the right water infrastructure in place and have a reticulated system at Oakbourne but the Longview is mostly dams “We’ve secured boundary fencing and are now working on individual paddocks. Around 90% are stock proof now thanks to patch ups but we need to re-align all those fences and do them properly.” full of silt after the cyclone. The long-term goal is a reticulated system on Longview as well. Brad is the third generation to farm the land, a ballot farm his grandfather obtained after the war. Brad’s wife Aleisha helps out on the farm as well and their daughter Cadi, 9 and son Beauden, 7, also love the rural life. The family is currently in the process of succession planning to see how to purchase an additional farm or split the current farm to make it feasible for both Brad and brother Shaun to farm one day. Roundaway Station 06 857 8755 roundawaystn@xtra.co.nz Proudly supporting Longview
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