Cattle farming, a vital component of the local economy, is bearing the brunt of escalating drought only 18 months after the devastating floods.

After very little rainfall over the last few months, large portions of our local government areas have been declared drought-affected by the Department of Primary Industries (DPI), a condition identified as intensifying. South Casino has been declared officially in drought.

Dave Shaw, who owns a farm at Tomki, said that he currently has two dams dry, which were not even dry during the major 2017-2019 drought. The only other time there have been dry dams on the property was shortly after buying his farm in 2003 (the Millennium drought of 1997-2009). 

Not only is lack of water a problem for livestock, but as dams recede, cattle can become stuck in the surrounding mud as they struggle to reach the remaining water, creating a huge job for many farmers as they frequently attempt to rescue beasts that have become bogged.

Many farmers have now had to reduce the amount of head on their properties in an attempt to cater for remaining livestock, as feed dies off rapidly. The lack of grass is particularly problematic for older cattle, which don't have the teeth to chew the shorter feed, and for cows with calves drinking off them. "That really drags the life out of the cows," Dave said.

"There was a lot of cattle in Lismore (at the sale yards), that you could tell people were just trying to get rid of. Some people will see their cattle losing condition and will decide, 'We've got too many, so we'll sell,' and they'll get a reasonable price because the cattle have still got a bit of condition."

"And then you see other cattle running in that have just done it proper tough, and they don't make much money at all. I should have gotten rid of some four or five months ago. I was overstocked, and then it just got drier and drier and all of a sudden, you find yourself with a real problem."

Even a smaller-scale cattle farmer such as Dave has to provide at least a bale of hay a day to supplement the feeding of cattle, and with each bale costing $120-$140, this presents an unsustainable financial toll.

Tony Durheim, who runs a few head of cattle, said that while it is costly to feed them, "prices are so ordinary right now anyway, you're giving them away, so what are you going to do?? Better to keep feeding them.”

Peter Graham, a local dairy and beef farmer whose farm was flooded last year, asked “What do you do? I've had my head under the water, now here I am. Now I'm scratching dust. It's too many extremes and in too short a time. Yeah, it is biting very, very hard. Where we are now is an extreme event in the sense that it's crept up on us so quickly.”

“My strategy going forward is irrigation, irrigation, irrigation. But diesel is going up again. I run diesel generators to run my irrigators and, yeah, it's an expensive exercise. There's no (tax) claim for that. So, I’ll be working harder and shifting irrigators day and night. I’ve got all that fun ahead of me."

"The Richmond River is my biggest asset. It's also my biggest liability. When you have four metres of water over your farm, it’s just a bit much. But, yeah, the strategy now for the dairy is to irrigate and keep on keeping on. Try and keep some sort of moisture in the subsoil profiles and just buy the livestock time. Because you can't buy hay. Not only is it too dear to buy, it's not out there.”

“There's no hay in the south because of all the floods. There's no hay up and down the eastern seaboard. Not the percentage of hay that is needed if this dry doesn’t turn around. You may have heard there are failed barley and cereal crops happening. They're not actually failed crops. They're just people taking the opportunity to secure the high hay prices by turning their cereal crop into a hay crop instead of a grain crop."

"So, is that gonna put more pressure on the grain industry as the months proceed? Grain prices are continually rising at this point. We should be supplementary feeding our calves to take the pressure off their mothers. But with today's livestock prices there's not the return to be able to keep feeding.”

“What most of us should be doing is talking to our local cropping guys and talking them into paying them the right money for some of their crops. But no one's cashed up to be able to go out and invest that sort of money in crop to store it ready for tomorrow.”

For many people in the region who are still dealing with the aftermath of flooding, rain is still a triggering event, and many remain unaware of, or disassociated from, the escalating drought conditions faced by our farmers. But the ramifications of drought can quickly ripple through the local economy and affect us all.

Cattle farming isn't just a livelihood for these farmers; it's a way of life that supports feed suppliers, veterinarians, equipment manufacturers, and local businesses. The drought threatens to disrupt this broader ecosystem, potentially leading to a downturn in the wider community.

Let’s hold onto hope that there will soon be a reprieve from the current conditions.