Record flooding in NSW Mid North Coast leaves farmers on the brink
Dairy farmers across the Mid North Coast have been devastated following a week of record rainfall for much of the NSW coast.
Emily Neilson, owner of The Dairy Johns River, spoke to Sky News Australia about the toll the floods have taken on her farm and others in the region.
Located midway between Taree and Port Macquarie, Ms Neilson’s property narrowly avoided the worst of the deluge, but she says many others weren’t so fortunate.
“We normally milk about 150 cows. We haven’t been able to do much in the way of response yet—just getting the cows through each day,” she told Sky News Australia.
“All of our paddocks planted for winter have been under water. We’re seeing lameness, mastitis, pneumonia… but we’ve been very lucky compared to others.”
According to Ms Neilson, fellow farmers in the region are facing catastrophic losses.
“It’s just devastating. There are no words for it,” she said.
“The damage is insurmountable, the grief is immense, people are just trying to figure out what the first thing to do is.
“For dairy farmers, the first thing to do is always to get the cows milked, try and give them some relief, stimulate that milk production, get the mastitis out, and treat them for anything that they might have succumbed to. But the dairies that have been under water are full of debris. It’s a massive job before they can even think about getting the machine started.”
