Farmers feeling the heat amid dry

Drought conditions kick in

The knock-on effects of dry weather across Tasmania has had enormous effects for the farming industry.

Rob McCreath, who is a beef producer west of Deloraine, is having to feed extra stock silage and hay to keep animals in good condition because of the lack of rain.

“February and March have been hot, dry and windy and really shrivelled everything up really quickly,” he said.

“It got quite difficult from the end of March onwards. We’ve been very fortunate that we had some good rain a few weeks ago.

“Things are starting to green up where we are. But that hasn’t been all over Tasmania and there’s still a desperate situation on King Island and Flinders Island.”

Mr McCreath said the dry weather has been a great disruption to the normal operation of the cattle market.

“Everyone like us who had animals booked in for a long time for processing is getting pushed down the queue and having to hold on to animals for more than a month, because producers on King and Flinders Islands are running out of stock water and the abattoirs are rightly giving priority to those animals coming off the islands,” he said.

“We’re all feeding stock silage and hay to keep animals in good condition.”

Mr McCreath said there have always been droughts before, but the changing climate and rising temperatures haven’t been like this.

“It’s clear that temperatures are rising as a result of climate change so in the future, we’re going to get more of this,” he said.

“We really need more urgent action on dealing with climate change.”

It comes as the first look into the upcoming Tasmanian winter has more than a 70 per cent chance of being among the hottest 20 per cent of winters.

“The one-month rainfall outlook for May 2024 shows that parts of northern Tasmania are likely to be drier than average, but there is no strong push towards above or below average rainfall elsewhere,” Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Jonathan Pollock said.

“The one-month rainfall outlook for June is neutral for most of the state with no strong push towards above or below average rainfall.

“The three-month outlook shows high chances (above 80 per cent) of warmer than average maximum and minimum temperatures across Tasmania for May to July overall.” tia.ewen@news.com.au