FLASH FLOODING at Shandford Farm in Brechin this week, has caused significant damage to surrounding roads, walls and sheds, leaving behind a nasty clean-up job.
The SF spoke to our Field Margins columnist, Graeme Mather, who is part of a family partnership which owns the farm, and who are all now busy seeing what equipment can be salvaged from their workshop after the flood.
Over 117ml of rain was recorded in less than three hours (Photo: Graeme Mather)
Graeme said that the heavy downpour started at 2pm on Tuesday afternoon (August 10) and within three hours – after which it stopped – they had recorded 117ml of rain.
“We have had a lot of ground movement, roads and walls have been damaged and sediment from ditches has been washed up into the farm," he reported. "We have so far removed about 30 to 36 tonnes of sediment from the workshop alone using the trailer and reckon we still have about 40 tonnes to go. This is going to be some clean up job, but we are lucky that everybody is okay and the farm house hasn’t been flooded.”
The aftermath inside Graeme workshop (Photo: Graeme Mather)
He added that thankfully the fields aren’t looking too bad, and he was able to drive his JCB over them this morning to check his livestock.
“The rain was so heavy and consistent for those few hours that luckily it seemed to run straight off the fields and not do any permanent damage. I spoke to the bus driver who picked my wee one up for school and he said that it seems to have only really been a three mile stretch in this area which has been affected by the heavy rainfall.”
Some of the mess left behind on the farm road (Photo: Graeme Mather)
Graeme said that he has experienced wet weather in the past, but this was his first real flooding incident.
“It is too early to say just how much damage has been done as we have so much clearing up to do. It really was shocking how much water came down so quickly, you couldn’t physically do anything about it. A lot of farms have been desperate for rain, but nobody wishes for the extremes in weather we have been experiencing.”
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