Drought for breakfast, lunch and tea. When you go to sleep and when you wake up the bloody drought permeates every aspect of your working day but I always look for the positive and we are assured rain is on the way so celebrations are in the wind.
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The work load is relentless with feeding becoming a full-time job but the most disappointing aspect is when you have taken devoted care of your cows but the tail end of the mob still get stuck in dams or will not go on drought feed. I thought I would save a few bob buying a large quantity of hay that was bailed a bit light and freight them home on my own semitrailer.
The bit I did not think through is I have to spend 14 hours a week driving about 50 kilometers west of Goondiwindi to get the hay to keep my cows in the paddock and weaners in the feedlot going. That 14 hours driving gives me far too much thinking time about Governments woefully inadequate response to drought.I love all the armchair experts usually on bloated Government salaries telling me how I should have sold my stock and how Governments should not help during drought. But for those of us in the real world trying to meet bank mortgage payments who listened in previous droughts know that early selling is fraught with downside as well.
READ MORE: Help farmers survive the Big Dry
The rapid onset of this drought meant ground feed disappeared very quickly and the usual December, January, February, March rain that normally provided an abundance of feed in this area did not come. The Wallangra area has no precedent for oats crops failing completely which happened this year meaning weaners could only be put in a feed lot.
The net affect is horrendous feed bills which very quickly are hard to manage as the demand on your cash flow with delivered prices of barley at $460, cotton seed at $600 and dry lick at $780 – the costs to keep stock going quickly become a bit frightening. Most suppliers want cash before delivery or 30 day payment so cash flow is is king making the NSW Government freight subsidies very helpful. Loans to improve water and drought preparedness also will help in the long term.
Which brings me to the Federal Government response, low interest loans are excellent long term provided they do not upset your bank who provide ongoing funding. But they are not much use during a drought and the extra cash was only available to farmers on household support, which is about 3 per cent of farmers and the increase in capital value will increase this to 6pc leaving the great majority with no cash flow help. The Australian public have been incredibly generous in helping farmers but it is Government who provide the lion’s share of help, perhaps they should focus their attention on cash flow help to ease farmers mental health worries.
Mal Peters is a beef producer, former mayor and Councillor of the Inverell Shire Council. This opinion piece first appeared in The Land.
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