The 7.8 quake that rattled the region on November 14 mangled his rotary dairy shed, left his property without water for stock and literally turned his farming operation upside down.
“It’s been an extremely frustrating and painstaking day-by-day to unravel the chaos,” Jones said.
The quake put his dairy shed out of action.
“It’s a rotary, the platform floated on water, well it did but the platform dropped two feet and there’s no water now – it’s wrecked.”
In desperation to get his 810 cows milked Jones was offered the use of a neighbour’s herringbone.
“The idea was fantastic but try milking cows used to a rotary in a herringbone, that wasn’t so fantastic,” he said.
So it was further down the road for the cows, a three kilometre round trip to milk in another neighbour’s rotary.
“Initially, that seemed like a good idea too.”
But by the end of week one with no milk tankers in sight and animal welfare issues emerging, another solution had to be found.
“To do all this and then just watch the milk get dumped was more than disheartening,” Jones said.
With paddocks turning yellow and fences cut to give stock access to streams for water, environmental issues were surfacing.
“We were no further ahead with milk collection so the only option was to get my cows out.”
With help from his dairy farming brother in Culverden, Jones was offered homes for half his herd.
Transport was the next challenge.
“After hours on the phone I had Gills, our local trucking company, teed up to go and GVT (Greta Valley Transport) were on call to help out too.
“The most frustrating part was getting approval to use the road to get the trucks in.”
Eventually, having reached the right people in the right places that approval came through and with just one hour’s notice the trucking companies had trucks on the way.
“We had such an awesome response from the trucking companies that have bent over backwards to help us.
“At one point six GVT trucks rolled up and just one was driven by a designated livestock driver, we had bulk grain drivers, any driver willing to drive the road turn up here, it was humbling to see how they pitched in.”
The last 20 cows left the property on Friday.
Jones now has 440 cows on two properties in Culverden and with the help of DairyNZ, the remaining 370 cows farmed out across six Kaikoura dairy farms.
None of the herd would return home for milking this season.
“These guys are amazing, my cows will be milked on all these properties now until the end of the season.”
Jones said he and the other 20 or so Kaikoura dairy farmers still awaiting milk collection had been assured by Fonterra that while milk was not being collected it would be paid for.
One of the biggest frustrations was the unknown of resumed milk collection.
“If they can get army trucks and fuel tankers in then surely it would be a priority to get milk tankers in the same way.”
While Jones was full of praise for the local Fonterra staff he hit out at the “powers that be”.
“Our local guys on the ground here are doing a fantastic job but we have had meetings and listened to Fonterra beating its own drum and where have (Theo) Spierings and (John) Wilson been.
“They haven’t showed their faces yet, haven’t even bothered to get in a chopper and come down here and see what we are coping with. That’s extremely disappointing.”
Jones said he understood there was lobbying happening at high levels for Fonterra to pay out all Kaikoura farmers for the season and let them dry off their cows.
“That would be a reasonable thing to do to help get farmers back on their feet but it’s a watch this space.”
With his cows finally sorted Jones said he could now stand back and get a clearer look at the big picture.
“It’s just been head down bum up to get the cows sorted.
“Now I can stand back and take look and I will be able to give some help to all the farmers who have helped us.”
