Four air force Iroquois helicopters will arrive in the Maniototo today to help farmers save an estimated 25,000 sheep and 1500 cattle that have been stranded by snow for more than a week.
The Government announced yesterday it was making the Royal New Zealand Air Force helicopters available to distribute hay to the stock with the machines' greater lifting power able to get feed to higher altitude than the small aircraft used so far.
About 20 farms in the Styx Valley are affected by the snowfall, described by locals as the heaviest in 20 years, with snow drifts in gullies up to 10m deep.
About 60 volunteers yesterday helped guide sheep on to ridges and areas away from heavy snow drifts. Four helicopters helped carry feed and ferry the volunteer shepherds around.
Farmers said they were overwhelmed by the help they had received.
While stock in lower reaches have been checked and fed, farmers are concerned about those in the higher country which they have not been able to get to because of the bad weather.
Farmers say stock can survive in snow for several weeks but they are worried they may become trapped in snow drifts.
A spokeswoman for the Minister of Agriculture said Maf had surveyed the worst affected farmers and estimated about 25,000 merino and halfbred sheep and 1500 cattle faced starvation, with the worst affected on the Rock and Pillar Range.
She said at this stage the helicopters would be available for the day but were likely to stay in the area until they were no longer needed.
Maf and air force staff would work with disaster co-ordinator John Beattie from an operational centre opened near Patearoa.
Acting Defence Minister Phil Goff said the snow was a one-in-20-year event and use of the Iroquois was an extension of their disaster relief role. The helicopters were on a mountain rescue exercise in Fiordland.
Acting Agriculture Minister Michael Cullen said the storm was "unseasonally severe".
"Local farmers have taken initiatives and have organised bulldozers and a large number of volunteers for snow raking. They are also using small helicopters to carry feed but they do not have the lifting capacity to take enough feed and they cannot reach the stock at high altitudes."
The stock are uninsured. Insurance agents spoken to yesterday said insuring farm animals against natural disaster such as floods and snow was expensive.
June 10. - It's amazing the difference a day can make.
One thousand head of cattle on Beaumont Station, in Central Otago, were due to be mustered to lower ground the day a storm raged through Otago. On Saturday, the last mob of 200 cattle was mustered on to lower country, free from snow.
The ferocity of the storm, which left snowdrifts over 10m deep, meant it was nearly a week before help could reach stranded cattle.
In that time, schools were closed and reopened and Transit New Zealand had spent more than $80,000 trying to keep roads open in what it described as "the most prolonged winter weather conditions in a decade".
A week after the storm started, the weather had improved enough to allow helicopters to reach the stranded cattle. In the first two days, the equivalent of 1200 square bales of hay was dropped to the stock.
Up to four helicopters were used to lift feed and shepherds.
Neighbours, casual musterers and volunteers helped to move the cattle to lower ground by stamping tracks through deep snow drifts.
While stock in the Styx Valley was moved to higher ground to avoid flooding caused by snowmelt, mustering cattle down continued on Beaumont Station.
The weather also evened the odds by bringing warm day temperatures and no frosts at night.
The melt continued, although gale force winds midweek grounded helicopters but did not slow bulldozers from ploughing tracks through the worst drifts.
On Saturday, shepherds and their dogs were loaded into a helicopter and flown to muster the last 200 cattle down to snow-free country. More than a dozen animals in deeper snow were air-lifted out.