Bush Summit: Late winter rain brings hope for farmers in southwest WA

After enduring a record dry spell, the southwestern corner of Western Australia is finally getting some rain. It’s a big relief for farmers.

Farmer Jarrod Carroll with his son Hamish amid the lush green grass that has sprung to life just in time to save his herd of black angus. Picture: Charlie Peel

Until a few weeks ago, the paddocks feeding cattle farmer Jarrod Carroll’s angus herd near Albany in Western Australia’s south coast were bare and his backup hay ­silage supplies were running low.

But after several weeks of decent rain, the ryegrass fields have come to life and his herd of 900 are growing fat on the lush green pasture.

The far southwest of Western Australia has been one of a few pockets of the country in drought for the past year, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, with parts of the region enduring its driest six months on record.

After the usually reliable winter rain fell last year, the tap in the sky turned off and the hot, dry summer turned into a hot, dry autumn and a warmer and drier-than-average winter.

While the grass on Mr Carroll’s properties is usually lush, green and boggy at this time of year, there was a time when he watched the black angus cattle kicking up dust as they walked across the paddocks.

“I’d never seen it so dry,” Mr Carroll said.

“These paddocks were blowing dust. That’s very unusual for here.

“It was very scary for a while.

“Even some of the better farmers were all pretty scared. Everyone was pretty worried.

“On top of that were the low sheep and cattle prices and the live (sheep) export ban.”

Despite some patchy rain throughout winter at the start of August, the weather bureau’s drought statement said severe rainfall deficiencies had led to water storage shortages in southwestern WA, including some areas along the coast going through a record dry spell.

But earlier this month, the southwesterly winds returned, bringing with them the much-needed rain.

When the sky finally relented a few weeks ago, it did so with almost too much gusto, causing flooding and storm damage to parts of the southwest coast.

It rained again over the weekend, with a southwesterly front bringing strong wind and falls of up to 60mm from Perth to Albany.

“The late winter rain has grown grass because it’s not cold and underwater and miserable so the grass has been able to grow,” Mr Carroll said.

Farmers are now locking up some of their paddocks to allow the grass to grow to replenish their hay stocks that have been depleted during the past year.

“Everyone’s run out of food, hay, silage, everything, so everyone needs a good, soft spring to really bolster their fodder stocks again,” Mr Carroll said.

The dry has affected the fertility of cows, with twice as many as usual failing to fall pregnant, but selective breeding has enabled Mr Carroll’s cattle to gain weight quickly.

“People aren’t going to make money this year,” Mr Carroll said.

“It was a perfect storm with low cattle prices, a bad season, interest rates going up, and hay prices were ridiculous, just uneconomical,” he added.

“(The rain) is a relief but there’s still not a lot of confidence.”

WA Farmers Livestock section vice-president David Slade, who runs a 6000ha mixed livestock and cropping operation near Mount Barker, 50km north of ­Albany, said he had never seen the region as dry as it was by the end of summer.

“Farmers cater for the bad years and have resources in place to deal with it, but it was tight there for a while,” he said.