Local farmers grow ever desperate for rain

WATER restrictions may have been imposed on the Sunshine Coast but it is not just towns that are feeling the pinch.

Farmers yesterday said they would be in serious trouble if good rains did not fall soon.

Bathurst Agricultural Society president Danny Wepenaar yesterday said the lack of any decent rain in recent months was worrying.

He said this year was the driest the area had experienced past four years.

Award winning Alexandria dairy farmer Tshilidze “Chilli” Matshidzula said things had become so desperate he had resorted to feeding his 550 cows “from the bag”.

“Things are very tough. There is no grazing left and many farmers are buying lucerne at high prices just to feed stock.

He said the current drought was the worst he had experienced in 10 years of farming in Alexandria.

“All the small dams are dry and if it gets any lower we will have serious problems.”

Nearby beef farmer Trevor Biggs said even though he was not that hard hit by the drought, friends in nearby Nanaga were worse off.

“We have received reports that parts of Nanaga are the driest they have been since 1924.

“It is also very desperate in Patterson and Cradock and the Karoo has also been hard hit with lots of game dying on farms there.”

Retired farmer Leon Coetzee said over the parts of the Karoo were so hard hit that farmers were selling off stock to try and save them from starving to death.

Speaking at a prayer meeting for rain in Bathurst, Coetzee said his friend Manie Schoeman had already sold half his cattle and sheep in Cradock and was now planning to sell half of the stock he had left.

Southwell farmer Dennis Stirk said things would be desperate if good rains did not come by February.

Port Alfred rainfall guru Eldred Bradfield, who has been keeping records of every rainfall since 1957, said since the beginning of the year 615mm had fallen.

He said it was well down on the previous year’s rainfall at the same time in December of 1 052mm and the average annual fall since the millennium of 934mm.

“Our problem is that the last decent rainfall came in September when 124mm was recorded.

“Since then only 95mm has fallen with just 16mm during December.”—