Are Dairy Farmers Still Droughted?

eastAUSmilk has been chasing public servants in the Commonwealth, New South Wales and Queensland governments, and their Ministerial offices, to stress drought issues and drought response inadequacies.

This week, there’s good drought news for dairy farmers in most parts of Queensland and New South Wales. Tim Bale, near Taree, says the rain is ideal and “it’s a late spring”; Paul Newland in Malanda says everything has turned green overnight; Waylon Barron, just south of Toowoomba, reports widespread rain has stimulated furious summer planting; Kay Tommerup, near Beaudesert says her pigs will need to learn to swim.

With recent good rains, city dwellers may be mistaken and think all is now great for farmers everywhere, but they would be wrong.

Our members are cautioning that while recent widespread rains are a welcome relief, not everyone has had enough rain to make a difference. Most are also saying that without decent follow-up rains in the next couple of months, any pasture or feed growth promoted by November rains will be too limited to make a great difference.

In many cases, watercourses have flowed only a little, and dams have not filled, which means irrigation water access may not be much improved.

Every bit of advice from the experts says farmers must plan for drought and build their resilience. Our members have been investing time and money in their drought planning, and have incurred costs, along with the stress of a very dry 2023. While few had begun actively destocking before the rain, many had been letting herd size shrink, opting to keep numbers low, and trying to source feed to see them through the summer. Most have been unable to grow fodder to see them through to winter rains, and will still have to buy feed to supplement whatever they can now grow following November’s rains.

Feedback from members is making it very clear that circumstances are very different from region to region, and between localities, which makes it important that government policymakers are stopped from trying to make policy on the basis of the overall or average industry situation.

eastAUSmilk is going to keep on talking with government at every level about the ongoing need to ensure policies and programs reflect a full understanding of the true and diverse circumstances of farmers, and the possibility that recent rains could turn out to be not a real reprieve, but false hope.

Mike Smith, eastAUSmilk Government Relations Manager