A land of droughts and flooding rains
Flood waters inundate the farm at Kerang, Saturday October 22, 2022
IF anyone has a direct line upstairs would you please put the word out that while we appreciate the rain, enough already-some warm weather and sunshine would be lovely!
On Tuesday we made the decision to bring the milking cows from the Kerang farm back to Lake Boga because of the flood potential, the likelihood of isolation and having no milk pickups. Access for milk trucks is a problem at the moment with many of the connecting bridges at Echuca, Rochester, Kerang and Elmore closed and we have been advised to expect to tip some milk out-it’s such a waste, but there is no time crying over spilt milk. Hopefully it’s only for the short term.
If you read my article in North West Farmer this month, you would know my wildly optimistic gut felt that the farm in Kerang would be safe. Our decision to bring the cows home (despite my optimism) proved to be a good call as sadly, the Kerang farm went under on Saturday.
It’s quite difficult having to make important decisions such as this without being able to access good information. The bush telegraph on the other hand, is an amazing thing. Farmers I would rarely talk to are now- by virtue of checking-in with each other almost daily for updates-people I talk to more than some good mates and family members. This is all in the need to get the most reliable and accurate information-particularly from the farmers upstream- about what’s coming.
We have been having trouble feeding the cows properly as the feed pad area is too wet, therefore a no-go zone, and the fully-loaded mixer (the tractor, the mixer and the feed in the mixer) weighs over 30 tonnes so is quite a challenge to pull around muddy paddocks. The cows are currently fully fed on grass, but some of the extras, such as the minerals and the buffers, are added through the mixer and we have only been able to do it two days out of the past seven, so we have been watching for health repercussions. Our options are limited.
We have put dry cows and some calves on one of my best barley crops ever, as we may as well eat what we can before it goes under. The dairy and most of the houses should be safe, whatever happens.
Floods upstream higher in the catchments happen fast, for those of us on a floodplain it is more of a marathon. The Loddon peak was still coming as I wrote this. It will take up a week to 10 days to travel from Kerang to the Lower Loddon and into the Little Murray to us. Dad always says we can usually handle a high Murray, the real challenges for us are when the Loddon and Avoca (we’re between the two) are in flood and trying to get into the Murray, which is also in flood.
In 2011 we were lucky the Murray was not that high. We did have a bank break on the Avoca floodway and we were saved by some extraordinary work on a digger by Dale Whitfield. We had two diggers working up to their bellies in water and we were losing badly, so Dale jumped on one and blocked a significant breach with the telephone pole and some hay bales-it was a remarkable effort.
A big thank you to everyone who has reached out with support in the past week or so, and apologies if we have not responded-we have been flat out in preparation, but the reality is we are under no threat for at least another week. Best wishes to everyone who is affected at the moment.