Dry dams, dusty land
Farmers taking it day by day
THIS week in the Rural Weekly Cathy and John Hamel share their story on how they keep getting by during the dry.
The Hamels’ secret to surviving the drought is to take it day by day.
Cathy and John Hamel farm sheep and cattle near Texas, on the border of Queensland and New South Wales.
Mrs Hamel said after the previous drought they looked at ways to make their property more sustainable.
“We dug out all our dams ready for the good season.
“Going back to the floods of 2011, we didn’t get the rainfall but we got the water from upriver.
“But by 2014 we had our cattle back on the road again. It was continuously not producing the rain we needed.
“We didn’t actively go out and make plans to prepare for the next drought, we just looked at ways to make our property more sustainable and build our numbers back up again.”
Mrs Hamel said they learned a lot from the previous dry.
“With the last drought we did destock but we tried to hold onto a lot and keep them going. But we ended up basically giving them away. We just kept the breeders on the road during the day to feed and take them back at night to water,” she said.
“When it came time again and it was looking very dry again and the forecast was looking bleak, my husband decided to unload all our cattle in one season.
“We have 12 heifers left out of a mob of 60-odd cattle. They’re on agistment at the moment.
“And we have a core of about 150 breeding ewes. We’ve kept some wethers back for wool production, but they basically look after themselves.”
The Hamels put in a new dam two years ago in preparation for the good times.
“It’s never been filled,” Mrs Hamel said.
“In the four or five years since we’ve dug the others out during the last drought they’ve never been full again either.”
For this and more get the Rural Weekly in tomorrow’s The Chronicle.