Desperately dry times

This week was the first time I’ve heard anyone mention the dreaded ‘d’ word to describe the season.

That’s drought of course, although it was prefaced by the word ‘green’. Governments prefer us to say, ‘unseasonally dry’.

Around much of Victoria, that’s an understatement. And with winter now upon us as we march into June, any rain now will be too late for a big burst of pasture growth as it will simply be too cold.

I live in predominantly sheep and cattle country and the sheep and lamb losses this year are already appearing to be very high.

First, through pregnancy toxaemia, with so many ewes now having multiple lambs, it’s just too much for their bodies to take.

It reminds me of the drought in the 1980s when I was working on a cattle property and cows started collapsing.

The farmer would pick them up in the front end loader and put them in the shelter of the hay shed with plenty of feed and water, turning them over every few days to avoid the cows becoming cast. I have to say, it was pathetic to witness. Not one cow survived. Putting them down would have been kinder.

Farmers are having to feed their livestock every day and it’s costing tens of thousands of dollars for many.

What’s worse, ewes are abandoning their newly born lambs when the feed arrives, such is their hunger and instinct to survive. And foxes are also hungry and preying on weak lambs.

I did a very interesting interview for Country Today about magnesium and calcium deficiency in sheep.

Even when pastures are tested to be at the desired level, pregnant ewes are usually not getting enough.

Just some simple salt licks can help, especially when there is so little pasture about.

In the past fortnight, fodder prices have gone up by about 30 percent.

Farmers in central NSW are so desperate they even buy the much lower quality hay that’s been sitting in a shed for a couple of years.

Feed barley is also at record high prices so not an option for many, though a good crop to be sowing if you have had the rain.

This is different though from the last drought. As an avid watcher of the rain radar, in the 2000s the cold fronts would fall too far south and pass the mainland, heading eastwards towards New Zealand.

This time, it’s more the fronts just do not seem to be strong enough and peter out before bringing a decent drop.

It’s Murphy’s Law. Just when lamb and beef prices are good, we’re hit with another dry spell.

I think it is time someone organised one of those naked rain dances to give Murphy a bit of a fright.