Wild winds unseen in living memory toppled centre pivot irrigators and tore farm sheds and equipment to shreds on October 23.
Gusts of up to 140kmh came when dairy farmers were near the peak of milking and lambs and calves were on the ground on sheep and beef farms.
Dairy farmers initially struggled to milk cows because of damage to milking sheds and blocked access to milk tankers.
At least one staff house on a Culverden dairy farm had collapsed after a tree fell on it and many farmers were unable to leave properties because trees had blocked drives.
The air was so dusty, Federated Farmers North Canterbury chairwoman Bex Green had to wear goggles and could only see 1m-2m in front of her.
Mrs Green and husband Blair, who are Culverden contract milkers of 1000 cows, were among the farmers facing repairs to centre pivots.
"It’s really bad and it’s not just pivots — it’s sheds, houses, bits of machinery and farm gear going flying. Our PKE feed trailer has gone, water tanks have gone and a few staff houses damaged. I’ve never seen it this bad. The other day was quite bad with a few pivots down, but I would say this has been the worst it’s ever been."
She said it was too dangerous to be outside when the winds were at their peak, as bits of tin were flying around and all the glass windows in their cow shed had broken.
"You couldn’t walk outside and no driving. My husband and staff were stuck at the cow shed because they couldn’t drive from there to their houses 150m away."
Dairy farmers had lost milk as milk tankers couldn’t collect it as many roads were closed.
Power was cut early in the morning.
Mrs Green said farmers had filled irrigators and pointed them in the right direction to provide the least resistance to winds, but they were caught out by nor’west winds moving to the west.
"That’s actually what took away our pivot which believe it or not was tied down by concrete blocks and the concrete blocks have actually blown over.
She said they already had insurance claims in place for previous wind damage last week and further claims with high excesses were inevitable.
"Last time this happened was in 2013 and there was a backlog of pivots being repaired because irrigator companies just didn’t have the parts available.
"So it will be much the same when you are trying to water your farms at a really pivotal point of the season — it’s not good and we are about to start mating.
"My neighbour has his cow shed caved in, so I don’t know how he’s going to do that. He will have to move all the stock to his other cow shed and go from there."
Many people could not get off their own farms to help.
"Our driveway has 25 trees down so I have to go through the neighbours if I need to and luckily there’s no school today."
