Federated Farmers Southland president Rod Pemberton said those farmers were identified during last week's visit by volunteers and while some needed little more than a morale boost, others were struggling personally or had farm-management issues that required additional assistance.
Southland Rural Support Trust chairman Lindsay Wright said in some cases a follow-up phone call by a recovery facilitator was sufficient, but others required a visit to check whether the farmer was back on track.
The trust plans to meet field representatives of rural companies to make them familiar with issues that might arise in coming weeks and months.
"They will be facing farmers under a lot of pressure and may have to deal with situations they have not encountered before."The trust also plans to run meetings after tailing to assist sheep farmers with decision-making.
Mr Pemberton said last week's visits also identified the most pressing concern for sheep farmers as future health problems in their lambs and sheep and mis-mothered lambs following the chaos of the storm.
Dairy farmers are facing a potential feed crisis, and Federated Farmers has created a list of more than 10,000 bales of supplementary feed and more than 1300 tonnes of other feed from throughout the country which is available for southern farmers.
Mr Pemberton said after determining the need, this week the effort would centre on meetings in Balclutha, Wyndham and Otautau to outline options for farming families.
He said the meetings - providing a mixture of advice and information and a social get-together - proved successful after the Canterbury earthquake.
The meetings would include tips on identifying and dealing with stress, insurance and finance issues, animal health, welfare and feed management.
The meetings, which start at 7pm, will be held today at Menzies College, Wyndham, tomorrow at the Combined Sports Complex in Otautau and on Wednesday in the South Otago Town and Country Club, Balclutha.
Entertainment for children will be provided to allow whole families to attend.
"Our unsubsidised farmers genuinely appreciate the solidarity being shown towards us.
A key thing I think every New Zealander wants now is a pretty uneventful October," Mr Pemberton said.
