A BURST of rain should bring relief to farmers this week following an intense dry season.
A hot summer followed by prolonged dry conditions is concerning South East primary producers who fear the window is closing on ideal growing conditions ahead of winter.
Among them is Penola farmer David Galpin, who has been feeling the pressure.
Having to buy more stock feed, Mr Galpin said conditions had been “exceptionally dry” this year, with just 7.4mm falling at Coonawarra this month and just 36mm recorded for the year.
“We would ideally like 25mm of rain, but realistically if we even got 10 or 12mm we would be ecstatic,” he said.
“We expect the season to finish around November and get our rain around April so we set up for that but it is getting a bit testing at the moment.”
Adding to concerns, Mr Galpin said a lot of hay and grain had been sold to Queensland this year, making it difficult to source locally.
“Grain is getting harder to get and if it does not rain within the next couple of weeks then grain prices are expected to double which means we will need to buy more feed,” he said.
“This means that we will go over our budget and most of our profit will go into extra feed cost just to keep stock alive.”
Tasks such as fencing have now been put on hold with Mr Galpin’s Easter holiday also based around feeding stock.
“There are also other things that we must do around the property yet we can not until the rain comes,” he said.
“There is a lot more labor work because we are feeding everyday but while it stays dry we are just feeding all the time.”
Germination is also expected to be lost if there is no sign of rain within 10 days.
“The plants get to a point where if it does not rain the germination will just shrivel up and die so the whole process has to start again,” he said.
“In two or three weeks time, the temperature will drop so many degrees and the young plants will not cope because they need the warmth.”
Without rain within the next month, Mr Galpin said they will “be in trouble”.
“I think by then we would have to start looking at selling something off just to get through because we would not have enough feed to keep everything going for that long,” he said.
“It just is not sustainable.”
If rain does come, Mr Galpin said they have another paddock to sow hay crop into yet follow up rain will be the ideal situation.
“Once it does rain we still need a follow up rain and it is still a month before we actually get feed in the paddock for the stock so we will still be supplementing feed for the next four to six weeks which is about what we have left now,” he said.
“Within the next two weeks we need a reasonable rain to keep us going but we have our fingers crossed.”
Not in a devastating situation yet, Mr Galpin said there is still a few weeks to get rain and thinking positively is key.
“We do just have to think positive and not get too depressed about it but it is hard when you can physically see your stock getting skinnier and skinnier,” he said.
