Dairy Sector Heavily Impacted by Devastating Floods

Article by: Hari Yellina

Dairy producers in New South Wales and Queensland are still counting the expenses of the recent rainy weather, which has resulted in animal losses and infrastructure damage. According to a Dairy Australia representative, the floods impacted more than 100 producers, with 70 of them being badly impacted. She stated, “The Dairy Australia team is currently interacting with farmers to identify the implications and services required.” “Total numbers of livestock lost and farm damages have yet to be determined. They are, however, expected to be devastating.

“I was talking to a farmer near Taree who has fairly low-lying area, and probably about half of the farm has got a large amount of water over it for over ten days, which means the pasture will be dead, and they are feeding out silage that they don’t normally give out until April,” he added. “The biggest expenditures experienced by farmers in the Dairy NSW region are crop and pasture loss, but we’re not hearing tales of significant stock losses and fences wiped out like we have in other places.” There are sections of NSW where tankers are unable to pass, therefore people have been forced to waste milk.

Managing calving and dealing with difficulties like sore feet and mastitis, according to Mr van Wel, are continual challenges. “Obviously, you don’t want cows grazing in waterlogged pastures like this because it will result in substantial pugging,” he said. “There’s a lot of feeding going on,” says the narrator. “We’re also very aware that people on the Mid North Coast experienced severe flooding a year ago, and that those people need to be aware of the impact that the wet weather conditions are having on themselves, whether it’s causing additional stress or bringing up memories of some of those past impacts,” she says.

Graham Forbes, vice president of EastAUSmilk and a Gloucester-based dairy farmer, said the losses were still increasing. “The rains are coming back in and into other locations, and they’re starting to be very substantial in our area now… we missed having major catastrophes in the Manning and Hunter regions, but we’re moving closer and closer to that,” he added. “I’m aware of at least 15 farms in the Northern Rivers region that were severely hit… it’s incredible that some of these individuals are still operating. “In just ten days, some of these folks have received up to two metres of rain.

“We’re hopeful that the government would step in and provide some really substantial assistance to individuals who have been completely decimated by this. We’re witnessing really significant inflationary pressures right now, with fertiliser, gasoline, labour, machinery, and now grains all rising at a rapid pace as a result of the Ukraine conflict.” Currently, the best community support that is possible is for milk prices to rise.