Some farmers in Buller have seen cattle lost and pastures flooded following torrential rain in the South Island, but they will "work through it", Federated Farmers says.
West Coast Federated Farmers president Bede O’Connor told 1 NEWS while a "number of farms have been affected," the farmers are "quite concerned about the town".
"There’s been a number of houses flooded in town and the farmers know they can deal with what’s on farm, but we’re a big, strong community and we’re concerned about our community members," he said.
O'Connor says farmers have seen "some cattle loss" - one farm in particular - but "they're working on that".
"They were shifted to high ground and it was an unprecedented event so we’re working to support them and support the farmer involved and the people involved."
"Probably around 10 farms went underwater quite substantially," he said.
While 40 hectares of his own farm saw "a substantial amount of silt".
O'Connor says it's "part of farming next to a river".
"We’ll work through it - it'll be a process. We may have to reduce cow numbers that we're milking this year while we improve the pasture or get the land back in pasture."
He reiterated farmers' concerns for people living in town whose homes were inundated with water.
"We have to deal with these things but when you’ve got that number of houses that have had water filled with them, we are really concerned for them and we’ll support them if we can."
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