In 5 days, it will be exactly 12 months since I was granted Individual
Droughted Property status for our sheep and cattle grazing
property in southern Queensland. That’s not when the drought started, I had
started cutting Mulga for cattle feed in October 2012, all the while hoping
that the summer rains would come and that “it's only a few weeks away now,
surely” we started feeding cotton seed that we still had on hand in November,
and ordered our first truckload of fresh cottonseed for the last delivery
before Christmas. “That will tide the ewes and lambs over until it rains”.
February last year,
some of the waters started to give out and it had become necessary to start
rolling out some poly pipe. Just a bit to get water to the cows, it’ll rain
soon.
By May, all the signs were there that we were in for a dry
winter. We were pushing Mulga with the bulldozer and had fenced off and
equipped some of the dams that had started to go boggy. It really started to look like we were in a bad way for winter. But
the Weather Bureau, ever positive, was forecasting significantly above average rainfall.
“we only need a little bit to keep the sheep going, they say it’s gonna rain,
so we’ll join the ewes.... might buy another load of cotton seed to be on the
safe side”
All through the winter we kept feeding Cottonseed, lick and
pushing Mulga, until the dozer broke down, but the Bureau says its gonna rain
soon. So we started cutting with a chainsaw.
In August, we weaned the last of the late calves off the
cows, they are getting poor, but we found some agistment not far away, so we
shifted the cows away and early weaned the calves on to cottonseed and Mulga,
all the while continuing to fence in waters as they gave out.
By the end of August, we had started to run seriously short
of water in our ewe paddock, so more poly pipe and tanks were put in. But the
sheep were in good enough condition to shear at the end of August so we got
away with it.
The end of September, more dams went dry, more waters were
required.
By October, we knew we were in trouble. The Bureau finally
admitted they had got it wrong and the outlook for the summer was bleak. 40%
chance of average for the summer..... And our ewes were lambing..... And we
ran out of cottonseed.... and another dam went dry...
We started feeding the sheep the remaining cottonseed, and
in the mean time, were blessed with finding some cheap chickpea gradings. 10
tonne would get us through to Christmas, surely there would be a shower by then.
It didn’t...
There wasn’t....
More dams went dry....
The large house dam installed only a couple of years before
gave out....
So, come December, we cut the fences and swung the gates to
let the stock forage for what feed they can find. We started to transition over
to supplying nearly all our stockwater from our bore, upgrading the pump and
pipelines.... surely it will rain in the New Year.....
It didn’t.....
By the end of January, we had started on our second 10 tonne
of chickpea and all but two of our dams where dry.
The Mulga in the paddock nearest the bore had all gone....
All our lambs had died......
More pipe and troughs were installed.
So here I am 12 months on, 12 months of lost production and no reprieve in sight. In the last
12 months, I’ve done:
-70 tonne of
cotton seed
-20 tonne of
chickpea
- Countless
tonnes of minerals supplement
- Hundreds
of bales of hay
- 5000 acres
of mulga harvested
-20km of
poly pipe
-17 new
troughs
-10 new
tanks
-5 new pumps
- Worn out 2
chainsaws
And lost a heap of my future income stream in the process,
with the death of countless livestock.
By the end of winter, it had really stopped being Just
Another Drought. The native vegetation started to die. The wildlife started to
die.
Since Christmas, there has been a significant and sustained
die off of kangaroos from starvation, they don’t eat chickpea or mulga, and
while there is still dry grass in the paddock, it has been there too long and
the harsh sun has bleached it of all its nutritional value. Daily I drag dead
roos from the troughs, where they have climbed in to drink and cool off, but
are too weak to climb back out. Or they just die in the shade of the trees,
unable to go on.
The native eucalypts dropped their leaves, and the Brigalow
trees went red, then brown, their leaves crunching up in your hand like potato
chips.
It’s not a drought anymore, it’s not even an exceptional
circumstance....
It’s a natural
disaster.
Rainfall records show the driest year ever recorded in the
district. Normally, we get around 530mm, or a bit over 21 inches on the old
scale, for 2013 we recorded 200mm or 8 inches
... and 2014 so far is less.
I currently have 1200 ewes spread over 10,000 acres.... and I
still have to hand feed them. The cattle and the wethers are having free run
of a couple of other paddocks too, they forage for what they find, and what I
can afford to buy them. There is no mineral supplements, I can’t afford that
any more, its mulga, chickpea and whatever you can forage. I’m saying I have 2
dams left, but that is being generous, one is a boggy slophole.
So I’m at the pointy end of this drought now, the funds are
running out, but the bills are piling up. A decision must be made, do we
continue to throw more money at the problem? Or quit now and walk away? Surely
it will rain soon.
I read a comment piece the other day by an economist saying
that agriculture isn’t a special case, tourism doesn’t get any special help
when they experience a downturn due to the weather. No, that’s true, they
don’t. But unlike agriculture, they don’t see their expenses rise, and their
income fall, they are a discretionary industry, not the staple provider of the
staff of life, they are not personally responsible for the welfare of thousands
of living, breathing, feeling animals.
So tomorrow, I’ll get up and do battle again trying to do
the best for the animals in my care with the little that I have.... But the
Weather Bureau is optimistic again.... surely it will rain soon.....
