Dad's planning saves day for Taieri farm

Taieri farmer Josh Adam is feeling thankful for his father's foresight.

His dairy farm has been out of power since 5.50pm on Thursday when a massive storm brought down trees and cut electricity to thousands in the South.

Luckily his father James Adam bought a generator about two years ago and they were able to plug it into their cow shed and carry on milking.

‘‘We were able to milk twice a day, we were lucky,’’ he said.

The generator also helped keep their milk chilled.

Another farmer in the area was also able to borrow the generator to milk his cows on Friday.

It would have been ‘‘hard work’’ if they did not have the generator, Mr Adam said.

‘‘We wouldn’t have been able to milk the cows and that wouldn’t have been much fun.’’

In Lawrence, Sam and Matt Cook were conducting business out of their parents Night 'n Day without any power making cash only sales.

They could not offer any hot food or coffee as they had been out of power since 1pm on Thursday.

‘‘We’ve had to get rid of all our ice cream,’’ Sam said.

The boys believed it would be days before power would be restored in their area.

They also had to reduce their trading hours to only when there was day light so they could actually see their customers.