Long dry spell takes its toll

It has been more than 40 days since areas of West Gippsland experienced a decent downpour of rain and forecasts indicate it may be another 10 days before we see anything more than 1mm.

Water cartage contractors are the busiest they have been for years and farmers are desperately trying to find answers as dam levels drop and the little pasture they had dries out.

West Gippsland recorded 112mm of rain in December, enough to fill most people’s tanks.

Another 44mm on January 13 and 14 helped to keep the grass growing and tanks full.

But since then, the situation has grown grim and one local farmer said “water is becoming scarce.”

Tetoora Rd dairy farmer Mick Butterworth said he installed two new tanks last year and while he hadn’t yet bought water, he was saving water.

“The dams are down but I haven’t had to buy water yet. Water is becoming scarce but we are hanging in there,” he said.

Mr Butterworth said he was saving water where he could, not hosing out the whole dairy, instead shovelling much of the manure for it to be spread onto paddocks.

Mr Butterworth records rainfall for the Bureau of Meteorology and while January levels were on a par with averages, February was less than a third of the monthly average.

He said paddocks were suffering and it was the driest he had seen it for years, everywhere.

“This year we are so far behind in rain. In the first two months it has been so much drier.

“We have had years when it’s been dry up until field days (traditionally late March).

“I have dried off 15 cows this morning and I expect milk production will drop to half. If there’s no rain, there’s no grass and no milk,” he said.

Mr Butterworth said many of his neighbours were in the same position, wondering what they will do next if there was no decent rain on the horizon.

Two West Gippsland water cartage contractors – McIntoshs at Drouin East and Ashleys at Jindivick – reported a busier than usual February.

Pauline McIntosh said she had not seen it this dry across West Gippsland since the Black Saturday fires in 2009.

She said demand for water had increased significantly over the past month, with some household purchasing more than one load of water to get them.

“We are flat out. It hasn’t been this busy since the year of Black Saturday,” she said.

Russell Ashley said demand had increased in February.

He said he had delivered some water to farmers for stock and some households reliant on tank water had bought two or three loads.

Mr Ashley said the swamp areas had been the driest but in recent weeks, demand around the Neerim South area had increased.

Summer rainfall recorded for Warragul totalled 184.2mm over the three months, which is slightly below the summer average of 191.1mm.

But, normally the spread of rain has been more consistent, with this year’s dry conditions attributed to the long spell between significant rainfalls.

Warragul experienced a dry February with just 13.4mm, less than a quarter of the 59.5mm average for the month. Rain fell on seven days, with the 4.2mm that fell on February 16 the highest recorded.

While 40.6mm was recorded in February last year, low rainfall was also recorded in 2016 with only 10.4mm recorded.

In 2009, there was only 4.4mm recorded in February, which followed a dry January of 10.8mm.

The last wet February,was 2011 when a whopping 197.4mm was recorded.

The dry month followed an average January, with the 58.8mm recorded more than the 52mm average for January.

With warm weather forecast again for this week, local farmers will have to wait patiently for rain.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a drier than average and warmer than average temperatures for the March to May period.