A family has been forced to shut down their dairy farm at Deniliquin in southern New South Wales.
David and Kathleen Johnston and their daughter Kacee can no longer survive farming through the drought without water, and they believe the NSW Government is to blame.
“Who knew that this drought was going to be like this and who could foresee the Government’s stupidity for giving away all of NSW water,” Mrs Johnston said.
The Johnstons milk 140 cows in the Murray region of the Riverina, which has a general water allocation of zero from the NSW Government.
Buying what little water that is being traded at inflated prices and buying expensive feed to keep their cows producing milk is no longer viable for the family.
“A normal irrigation season for us costs about $60,000, but this year if I was to buy temporary water out of the channel system it would cost us close to $300,000 for the same amount of water,” Mr Johnston said.
“We need to be getting $1 a litre to cover it.”
Dairy days over at Deniliquin
In the good times, Mr Johnston said Deniliquin was home to as many as 40 dairy farms.
But since they started dairying 10 years ago they have seen farmers continually exit the industry.
However, the Johnstons’ confidence in the dairy industry lifted when Canadian dairy giant Saputo took over embattled processor, Murray Goulburn.
The family received a Premium Quality Award from Saputo for the milk they supplied to its factory at Cobram, Victoria, for 2017/18.
“Saputo were promising a lot of things, but we can’t hang on waiting for them,” Mrs Johnston said.
Source: ABC News
