Small area farmers have the same responsibility as mainstream farmers to put in place management strategies that will provide for the care of stock, prevent degradation of property and meet personal and family needs.

NSW DPI can provide assistance to you to plan and implement effective drought strategies.

Possible drought strategies

Time needs to be spent in developing a drought plan for your small farm. Don’t get caught acting too late and run the risk of harming your animals or your paddocks. You should be realistic in your assessment of the situation and not underestimate what is required in terms of resources.

Make decisions early and review them as the drought continues. Don’t wait – set a timetable and keep to it as closely as possible. Review your progress regularly.

Possible strategies for small area farmers are:

• selling some or all stock
• feeding
• agistment on neighbouring properties.

Caring for your farm

Low pasture availability

Pasture is usually the missed casualty of drought. Overgrazing by livestock can seriously degrade pastures and soil, costing thousands of dollars to repair.

Benchmarks that can be used include:

• Pasture quantity – pasture death greatly increases if the pasture is grazed below approx. 1000 kg DM/ha (kilograms of dry matter per hectare). See the photo.
• Ground cover – Appropriate ground cover level will depend on slope, likely rainfall intensity and soil type. Examples are 70% on red soils in gently undulating country on the northern slopes of NSW, 40% in the semi-arid rangelands in western NSW, 85– 90% on the north coast of NSW.

Remember

• If you have a choice, lock up the most valuable paddocks if pasture survival is threatened.
• Consider using one or more paddocks, or fencing off parts of paddocks, to use as feeding out areas.
• Bought in fodders can contain unwanted weeds.
• Try to find out about the source of grain or fodder so that potential problems can be anticipated. Restrict the area over which imported grain or fodder is fed out.

Caring for your livestock

The care of animals is always of the utmost importance, and in drought particular attention must be paid to protecting their welfare.

• Act early – you should act early while stock are still fit and strong. Remember, if your stock are pregnant you will be locked into feeding them much higher rations for some months after the birth of offspring.
• Relieve animal suffering – if the situation has deteriorated to the point where stock are suffering, you must immediately relieve the situation by feeding or agisting stock, or sending stock to slaughter. In desperate cases, stock may need to be humanely destroyed. It is not an option to just let nature take its course.

Drought feeding

Long-term maintenance feeding of stock on small farms can be expensive and should only be considered if:

• stock can not be economically replaced when the drought breaks.
• you have a strong personal attachment to the animals.

The quantity of feed required for full hand feeding depends on the size and stage of production of the animal and also the quality of the intended feed stuff.

An adequate supply of water is also vital for survival of stock. Carting water for stock is not generally a viable option.

Full information on hand feeding and other drought options is available on the NSW DPI web site at www.dpi.nsw.gov.au or in the publication 'Managing Drought', available from your local NSW DPI office.

Drought assistance

Financial assistance may be available to eligible producers. However this assistance is usually only available to those who derive a high proportion of their income from the farm. See Drought assistance or contact your nearest Rural Lands Protection Board office for details.

For advice and assistance contact:

• NSW DPI
• NSW Rural Assistance Authority
• Rural Lands Protection Boards.

Further information

Visit your local NSW DPI office or contact us using the details below.

NSW Department of Primary Industries
Drought Hotline
Telephone: 1800 814 647
E-mail: hotline@dpi.nsw.gov.au

NSW Rural Assistance Authority
Telephone: 1800 678 593
Website: www.raa.nsw.gov.au