Drought bites hard in Victoria’s Wimmera and Mallee regions

A LIFE-SIZE plush dog sits beside a table on the footpath outside the bakery in the main street of Birchip.

Grain farmer Chris Colbert surveys his drought-affected paddocks on his farm at Watchem in northwestern Victoria on March 11, 2015. (AAP Image/Caroline Duncan) NO ARCHIVING

A LIFE-SIZE plush dog sits beside a table on the footpath outside the bakery in the main street of Birchip, a small town on the edge of Victoria’s Mallee.

“He’s our drought dog,” the proprietor smiles.

“He doesn’t need water.”

While southern Victoria has had plenty of rain, a drought rolls on quietly in the Wimmera and Mallee regions in the state’s northwest — and it’s weighing heavily on communities like Birchip. Last year was a disaster for grain farmers up there.

Without a solid autumn break — the first rains after the dry summer — 2015 could be worse.

Chris Colbert is a third-generation farmer with 1400ha at nearby Watchem.

He says everyone in small communities hurts during a drought.

“This year will sort a lot of people out. This will be a tough year because nobody has got any money,” Mr Colbert said.

“You’ve got no income until January next year so its going to be a long 18 months.

“And it doesn’t just hurt farms. It hurts small businesses. Your chemical places, your bakery, your butcher. Everyone in country towns is going to be affected.” Last year, the autumn break offered promise that never materialised.

Mr Colbert said 16mm of rain fell at his place in mid-to-late April and, like many of his neighbours, he was encouraged to sow barley, wheat and canola and spend up on fertiliser.

But solid rain never followed.

“For the whole year we lived on dribs and drabs. There was some promise until August. If we had have got a decent rain in August, we may have got some harvest but then there were four frosts in spring. That just about killed everything,” he said.

Mr Colbert said the measly crop he harvested left him between $310,000 and $320,000 down on his usual annual grain sales.

He sowed 360ha of barley, could only harvest 50ha and yielded a paltry 5.5 tonnes.

“I should have got 130 tonnes,” he said.

The wheat and canola fared little better.

The lack of a decent crop is hurting now, as bills from last season start to roll in based on grain payments that never came.

He has not qualified for federal drought and farm household assistance.

Mr Colbert said he’s discouraging his two sons from taking over the property.

“They’re keen but I don’t want them to come up because I don’t think you’ll make a comfortable living as a farmer in 20 years time,” he said.

“There’s a young bloke not far from here. He’s 40 and he’s had enough. Selling up. Finding something else to do. That’s the start of it. By August or September, there’ll be more.

“It’s a pity that governments haven’t been more proactive, because when they wake up it will be too late.”