Farming Sheep in an Australian Drought
October 19th 2006 14:30
Say goodbye to the Sheep.
Here are few things we have had to consider.
• When the ewes were in lamb they were easily disturbed by the farmer bringing feed into the paddock and were likely to walk away from their new lambs and not go back. So despite having taken out all ewes that weren’t pregnant (they are called “dries”) a long time before lambing, the lambing percentage is still low. (Loss of future income)
• Any female lamb that you may wish to keep for future production will always be undersized and have difficulties as a mother after such a bad start. (Loss of future income)
• The wool from the sheep – if you are lucky enough to have them to shear will be down in volume and, although fine, will probably have breaks in the fleece because of the bad season and that will lower its value. (More loss of income)
• You must decide if you are going to sell your sheep before they are shorn – and perhaps get an extra five to ten dollars per sheep, or pay the shearer ($4-$5 per sheep) to shear them first and then get less for them. You won’t know if you made the right choice until you put them on the market.
• No one will want to buy sheep as the drought is Australia-wide so sheep you got $60.00 for last year, you will be lucky to get $20 and in parts of Australia you will pay more in yard fees and transport fees than you will get for the sheep. (Loss of income)
• If you sell more sheep than your usual yearly cull of older sheep and poorer quality sheep (20%-40%), you will be selling off many years of careful breeding which has involved buying expensive rams and hours of careful weighing and measuring – often with sheep consultants. (Loss of future income).
• If you do manage to keep sheep they are all feeding extra close to the ground and so it is easier for them to pick up worms and other diseases – therefore there is a chance that you will need to drench (give them medicine), jet (spray them with anti-fly sprays- mixed in water) and crutch (shear off the dags) more than in a normal year. (More costs)
• If you sell the lot, it will take years to recover to the same standards. You will either have to pay extra for good quality sheep -buying when everyone else is looking to replenish their flock too or it will take between 5-10 years to reach the standards. This is why most try and keep some stock and there is great heart ache if they all have to go.
• And just to make budgeting that much harder, there is still the large variations in prices for products that come with the local and overseas markets for meat and wool.
• Oh, and of course, part of all this is that you must look after your land for if the top soil blows away when the rain does come one day if there is no topsoil or latent seed your future pastures will not be very good.
And all these problems just for the sheep manager! Farmers often have more than one enterprise so we could talk about cattle or dairy cattle farmers, broad acre cereal growers and many more. You may know some stories. And all the time the family needs to be fed, some need to be educated and boarded away from home and the normal bills come in – including, for most - interest rates.
Yes, the politicians can help and there also needs to be some long term planning and massive changes in thinking. I hope it won’t be forgotten when the next rain comes. But in the meantime, spare a thought for farmers and their families at this time and pray they remain sane.
A little humor goes a long way: “It hasn’t rained for so long even my clothes horse looks thin” (courtesy ABC Country Hour) and as an old friend observed “It always rains at the end of a long dry spell!” Do you know any more??
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Comment by Adele
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Comment by Anonymous
"Did you hear about the farmer who won lotto?
He said he was going to keep farming until it was all gone."