Farmers in Southland are counting their losses after an Antarctic blast brought snow to much of the region over the weekend.

Sheep farmers were hardest hit as new lambs succumbed to wind chill temperatures as low as minus ten degrees.

Southland Federated Farmers president Rod Pemberton says farmers with heavy losses should be careful when feeding out to sheep over the coming days.

“You start going into a paddock with a trailer load of supplementary feed, you get all sorts of problems with ewes rushing round trying to get to the feed.

"Sometimes the lambs get separated from their mothers, and it can lead to mis-mothering and all sorts of other problems.

"We’ve got fields where the snow is just too thick to break through to get to the grass, and that can also result in metabolic problems and the like.”

Dairy farmers in the south of the province were forced to dump milk as Fonterra tankers were unable to get through snow covered roads.

Environment Southland compliance manager Mark Hunter says the council worked with Fonterra to advise farmers how best to dispose of the milk.

"Because calving is in process at the moment, there is a bit more demand for excess milk so we’re encouraging farmers to use as much as possible in that way.

"Otherwise we’re saying try to use it straight out into your effluent pond. If you can’t, think about what tanks or facilities you have available that could hold this stuff for a few days.”

Fonterra Edendale Site Manager Keith Mason says access to farms south of the plant was almost impossible.

“It was a very localised event, very heavy at sea level, so anything basically south of Edendale was difficult to get tankers into.

Mr Mason says rain is now clearing snow from the roads, and collection should soon be back to normal.

"We’ve had rain since about 5am, the roads and farm tracks are starting to clear.

"Our day shift collection has returned back to near normal, and hopefully our shareholders will see tankers coming down the tracks today.”