‘ IT’S GOING TO GET SCARY’

BARBARA Davison is spending $ 100,000 a year feeding cows on her Moondah Station south of Prairie.

She had another stock feed order arrive last week. She gets feed in once a month.

The cost is usually about $ 8000. And now the price is going up.

“Because of the short rainfall again last year, everyone is having to do it. I’m feeding out one tonne a week. I’m feeding a urea- phosphorous mix now, but I’ll be adding protein in as well towards the of the year when the cattle need it,” she said.

She has been at Moondah since 1983. This isn’t her first drought. “There’s plenty of them. The thing is they are all different. I remember in the early 1980s we were just about giving away cattle. At least now with this one we can get a good price if we have to sell cattle,” she said.

She said there are other property owners worse off than her.

“People south of me have only had 70mm for the year and that’s been in four falls. When you only get little falls like that, it doesn’t do anything. They are in a bad way,” she said.

Mrs Davison said the thing worrying everyone was that it was only July and the hardest part of the year had yet to be faced. She said it could only get worse from here as the nutrient dwindled away to nothing in the grass.

“It’s going to get scary down the track,” she said.