Three weeks after the worst flooding in living memory in Tasmania, help is arriving on farms facing a long recovery.
Caveside farmer Matthew Parsons has not stopped feeding his 300-cow dairy herd since 425 millimetres of rain fell on his farm three weeks ago.
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“Just a lot of bloody water, a lot of water,” Mr Parsons said.
“We’re lucky that we’ve got some hilly ground so we can get them out of the water. Everything you do makes mud now.
“It’s fairly normal, but not this much at this time of year.”
The dairy dominated district in northern Tasmania is reassessing its infrastructure, finances and feed after a series of shocks.
Mr Parsons said his flood losses were compounded by unbelievable milk price cuts.
He had budgeted on $4.80 a kilo of milk solids to break even, but needed $5 a kilo to survive extra costs incurred from the floods.
More problems to come in a few months
Caveside diary farmer, Kelvin Howe, put it simply at a meeting at Mole Creek with the charity, Aussie Helpers.
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“In our area, I’d say the big problem is going to come in August, September, when it’s muddy, it’s wet” Mr Howe said
“People are up, calving cows, they’ve been without much money for about two months.
“We’re going to be short of feed, short of silage, short of hay, and not going to be able to buy the usually amount of [feed] pellets we usually buy.
“And we’re still going to be about two and a half months from a good cheque.”
It is six weeks since Murray Goulburn and Fonterra shocked the Australian dairy industry with retrospective milk price cuts.
Dairy industry well positioned to recover
Managing Director of Dairy Australia, Ian Halliday said Tasmania’s dairy sector was struggling, but it was well positioned to recover and return to profitability.
“We’re in a bit of a down cycle at the moment and it is tough, and I certainly acknowledge that for dairy farmers in the next 12 months,” Mr Halliday said.
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“I still think there’s opportunity in the industry.
“And I do know there are still investors looking to come into dairy, and looking to come into Tasmania.
“That gives me confidence and optimism about the future of the industry.”
Mr Halliday said the combined effect of the terrible seasonal and market conditions had ended Tasmania’s 8 to 10 per cent annual growth in milk production.
His comments came after visiting flood-damaged dairy farms at Gunns Plains, Flowerdale, Merseylea and Latrobe.
“This year it’s really pulled back so I think this year in terms of volume, we’ll probably hold where we were on the prior year.
“Volume is only part of the story, it’s about profitability, and I think that’s the biggest impact that I’m hearing from a lot of farmers.
“They’re preparing for next financial year now so what we’re trying to do with DairyTas is how can we help those farmers with the right sort of tools and processes.”
Mr Halliday said programs such as Tactics for Tight Times and Dairybase were critical to help farmers deal with the volatility of the flooded international market for their dairy products.
DairyTas has also been working with industry bodies to survey all flood affected farms, with over 100 surveyed to date.
Help is on hand
The not-for-profit organisation, Rural Business Tasmania has distributed over $80,000 to farmers for crisis relief and recorded a 30 per cent increase in demand for its farm financial counselling service.
Other registered charities including BlaizeAid and Aussie Helpers also have volunteers assisting farmers with support and practical help.
Aussie Helpers’ founder Brian Egan said he had visited Tasmania to connect with farmers, understand what happened and what is needed to deliver help and hope.
“Our job is to change these people’s mood.
“You saw the mood this morning, they were pretty sombre, pretty down-hearted, didn’t really know what to do and they’re sweating on the new milk price and so forth, and they’ve got a lot of challenges.
“Our job is to change that mood and make sure they feel good and can keep on doing what they do best and that’s growing product, or milk or cows or beef or whatever they do.
“I mean, they’re very important people.”
Source: ABC Rural
