Central West farming families feel the pressure as water wanes, feed runs low and debts add up
JESS Taylor felt so proud of her son when he said he wanted rain as a birthday gift — but also gutted because it showed how ongoing drought was affecting her kids.
NSW
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THREE sheep die every day from starvation on Greg Jerry’s Central West property. It is ground zero of a rain-starved state where many areas are suffering the driest conditions since records began in 1900.
The drought has taken such a devastating toll on the Jerry family that dinner consists of whatever dusty tin of food they can fish out from the back of the pantry to pair with an old cut of meat from the freezer.
The 49-year-old grazier has to shoot sheep every week when they’re too weak to stand up after a bitter winter night, or when crows have preyed on the most fragile.
Last month Mr Jerry shore his flock early despite the financial loss so the sheep wouldn’t have to struggle under the weight of their wool.
The Jerrys — Greg, wife Tanya, 44, and two of their sons who work on the property — can’t even afford a bag of lollies, are spending more than $2500 a week on hay, grain and cottonseed to feed 1400 sheep and 260 cows that are still so emaciated the abattoir won’t take them.
“I’m pretty well out of grocery money,” Mr Jerry said.
“We’ve used all our resources to keep going but we’ve hit the wall and we’re just about buggered.”
Half of the $100,000 Mr Jerry spent on livestock feed at his property near Coonabarabran since October went towards freight, as the state’s hay shortage has forced him to truck it in from Victoria and SA.
He has backed The Sunday Telegraph’s campaign for the state and federal governments to reinstate freight subsidies for fodder and water, bring back drought declarations and make it easier for farming families to access modest welfare payments.
The state government used to cover half of all freight invoices during drought, but the policy was scrapped in 2013 in favour of a new system of interest-free loans that are supposed to help farmers fend off drought with new sheds, silos and water storage.
Mr Jerry’s son Brett, 19, is working for free full-time on the farm, which has stalled his aspirations for as career as a heavy machinery mechanic.
Another son Alex, 21, is in his fourth and final year studying a Bachelor of Agriculture at University of New England by correspondence, which he fits in around a three-day-a-week labouring job on a neighbouring farm and helping his dad on the weekends.
The earliest the family could realistically expect any income is September, when they could sell underweight weaned calves, but without substantial rain the calves won’t turn a profit given how costly it’s been to feed them.
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Despite the crippling strain on the family’s finances, Mr Jerry hasn’t had time to fill out a 105-question application and compile the supporting documentation for the Farm Household Allowance, which may qualify them for a Centrelink payment of similar value to the New Start payment.
The exhaustive application process has also been too time-consuming for fellow Central West grazier couple Jess Taylor, 36, and Robert Taylor, 35, who are supporting their kids Heidi, seven, Harry, six, Charlie, four, and 18-month-old Bonnie on a shoestring budget.
The family sold half their livestock in the past four months and is handfeeding the remaining 600 sheep, 80 cows and 26 orphaned poddy lambs — their core breeding stock needed to replenish their land once the drought breaks.
“I’m responsible for my family every day but imagine that responsibility amplified by 100 when you’ve got all those hungry eyes looking at you, dependent on you for their next meal,” Mrs Taylor said.
It breaks her heart that she can’t afford a day off their 607ha property in Bugaldie, 500km northwest of Sydney, to take the kids to the tenpin bowling alley two hours’ drive away in Dubbo.
However, the Farm Household Allowance was so vital to the family, Mrs Taylor recently sacrificed five hours to drive to the nearest Centrelink office in Narrabri and fill out the paperwork, only to be told after she got home that she was four forms short.
In addition to the 105-question application, farmers also have to submit a 55-question income and asset form, their real estate details, private company and trust forms, tax returns, balance sheets and profit and loss statements.
Farmers across the state have been denied the payment because their farmland is worth more than $2.55 million, despite strong objections the paper value is irrelevant during such a catastrophic drought.
Last month, when Harry turned six, the only gift he said he wanted was rain, so his parents wouldn’t be so sad.
“I was proud of him for being such a selfless sport but I also felt gutted because it shows what a toll the drought is taking on the kids when the best thing a six-year-old boy could think of for his birthday was rain,” Mrs Taylor said.
“I had a meltdown on the weekend when it all got too much — the pressure never stops and the worry weighs on you.”