MARKETS & TRENDS
MACHINERY & PRODUCTS
Global demand remains sluggish. PAGE 10
Polaris unveils its XD ‘truck’.
PAGE 17
NEWS Cyclone’s devasting legacy. PAGE 8
TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS APRIL 23, 2024: ISSUE 799
www.ruralnews.co.nz
Mayor’s road rage! PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz
LACK OF progress in repairing the stretch of State Highway 2 between Wairoa and Napier is angering Wairoa Mayor Craig Little. It’s now 14 months since Cyclone Gabrielle caused multiple slips and washouts and demolished the bridge at Waikare near the settlement of Putorino. Even before Gabrielle struck, there were plans to build a new road and bridge to avoid the known problems in the Waikare Gorge. The demolished Waikare bridge has been replaced by a temporary one-way bailey bridge and along SH2, between Wairoa and Napier, there are
other slips and washouts, which to the casual observer appear to be taking an age to fix. Mayor Little can’t understand what’s holding up progress and is at the end of his tether. “I am 100 percent frustrated with the Transport Agency. I have written also to the Minister for Infrastructure, and am yet to get a reply, and the Prime Minister and I am aware that he is concerned. But we just need to get some reality and urgency into the pres-
ent crisis,” he told Rural News. Little says it seems that bureaucracy in all its forms is holding up and blocking the work. He claims the Transport Agency has been consulting on what needs to be done, but everyone in the area knows right now exactly what must be done. He says there is also talk of the railway line being reopened, but he says an extra passing lane on the road would be of more use. “We just need some common sense
to prevail and get the work done,” he says. Little says, if anything, the situation has got worse for people trying to travel between Wairoa and Napier with the way traffic is being managed. He points to the fact that there are at least nine sets of traffic lights on the road to get people through some of the one-way stretches of the damaged road. He says earlier on some of these were switched off at night, which allowed traffic to get through faster,
Ploughing on Sean Leslie and Casey Tilson from Middlemarch, with horses Beau and Dough, took out the Rural News Horse Plough award at the Power Farming NZ Ploughing Championships at Horotiu recently. During the event, the team seemed to be a favourite to win, although when the photo was taken, Sean told Rural News, “There’s still a lot of dirt to tip over yet”. He says finding horses with the right temperament for competition ploughing isn’t easy. While Beau and Dough have not been doing it for long, they’ve proved they have the right stuff!
WIN
SCAN QR CODE TO LEARN MORE
A TOYOTA
HILUX
GR SPORT & A BUCKETLOAD MORE!
but this isn’t happening now. The damage to SH2 is massive in some places and the journey from Wairoa to Napier, which would normally take just over an hour, is taking at least double that and, in some cases, up to three hours. Large rural businesses in Wairoa and further north in Tairāwhiti are now starting to question remaining in the region because of the poor infrastructure and the apparent failure of the politicians and bureaucrats to get their act together. The AFFCO meat processing plant is the major employer in Wairoa and it, like the major commercial growing company Leaderbrand in Gisborne, ship their products by this road to Napier and beyond and get input for their operations via the same route. “It’s all so frustrating,” says Little. The town of Wairoa services a huge farming hinterland and 14 months on, some farmers still have limited access to their properties. They are trying to repair broken fences and damaged farm tracks, but the land keeps on slipping and, for some, permanent repairs are impossible. Little is a farmer himself and says everyone is doing it pretty hard with low lamb prices, high interest rates and input costs. He says beef is okay but wool prices are terrible. But if the economies of farming aren’t bad enough, the fragility of the road and access to Napier is making life hell for this small, beautiful and prosperous community who feels forgotten by the authorities who are supposed to be fixing the problem.
Terms and conditions apply. Entry is open to Australian and New Zealand residents 18 years and over. SA Licence: T24/399. NSW Permit: NTP/09251. ACT Permit: TP24/00496. This competition applies to new Kubota excavators. Fleet and corporate purchases are not eligible for the promotion. Competition ends 30/09/2024.