FARMERS SAY IT’S TIME TO ACT

FARMERS in one of the driest parts of the region have called on the Federal Government to take note of climate change to safeguard the future of agriculture.

In 2018, parts of southwest Victoria experienced some of the lowest rainfall totals since the 1980s, including Deans Marsh, where Leighton Hart runs a dairy farm.

Mr Hart, a former chairman of the WestVic dairy board, said he had “lost a lot of pasture” in the extended hot and dry and, while surviving for now, hoped the prevailing conditions die off quickly in February to restore his faith the next season will be better.

“Everything hinges on what falls from the sky. It’s a bit of a lottery, really, and with the extended dry periods, it does make things difficult,” he said.

While forward thinking strategies to build bigger dams and secure infrastructure around them helped him get through the latest summer without needing to truck in water, Mr Hart said the country’s leaders had to step up and make a clearer plan.

A recent study from Australian National University shows the nation is at least making the right moves towards renewable energy, suggesting Australia is on track to meet its Paris agreement targets.

“We do know things are getting drier and rather than what we can do as farmers, we need changes at the top about how our government approaches climate change and try to get everyone on board in terms of what we can do to contribute to slowing it down,” Mr Hart said. “I

‘We need changes at the top about how our government approaches climate change and try to get everyone on board in terms of what we can do to contribute to slowing it down’ LEIGHTON HART, PICTURED

think the government is all over the shop with what the plan is.”

Mr Hart said the confusion was resulting in the general public being out of touch.

“Farmers provide a food source and when it gets drier and drier, it gets more difficult to produce it,” he said. “I think some people have got their heads buried in the sand.”

Andrew Stewart, who runs stock across the road from Mr Hart, is leading the charge for agroforestry to help support the region, splitting his own lot into different management areas.

Trees now cover 18 per cent of his property — up from 3 per cent from the early 1990s — both to provide shade for stock and retain water, and Mr Stewart hoped other farmers could show the same “willpower” to prepare for tough times.

“Considering pre-European settlement, this are was covered in vegetation and there weren’t creeks, there were swamps and marshes, and people came in and overcleared,” he said. “You’re never going to get it back to what it was … but you can make change to mimic the functionality of the previous ecosystem.”