Southwest dairies face mega water cost amid shortages

Southwest Victorian cattle are drinking town water, as dairy farmers are forced to pay the equivalent of $2300/ML to quench herd thirst.

Six months of low rainfall and little run-off have left Jodie and Mick Buttigieg’s dams almost sitting on empty, forcing the Warncoort dairy farmers to spend $20,000 a quarter on town water to quench the thirst of their 550-cow herd.

What’s painful for the Buttigiegs is knowing that while they pay the equivalent of $2300 a megalitre for town water, they have two herds in northern Victoria that are feeding on pastures irrigated with water worth $130/ML.

Tayla Buttigieg and her mother Jodie standing in the bottom of their 30 megalitre dam that now holds less than 2ML of inaccessible water. Picture: Rachel Simmonds

Mick and Jodie know all about the value of water, having run an irrigation property near Tatura until 2003, before moving to a rain-soaked property at Lavers’ Hill and then settling down to lease the Warncoort property.

Now the pair have gone back to their roots, buying an irrigation property at Tongala in late 2022 and leasing another at Undera, as part of their risk mitigation strategy.

“Mick always said to me ‘you don’t have bad season’s up north and down south’,” Ms Buttigieg said.

The strategy has allowed the family to cut their Warncoort herd from 750 down to 550, putting 200 on the Undera farm, plus all 200 of their heifers, while maintaining another 400 cows at Tongala.

But Mick is the first to admit it’s not the ideal lifestyle, given he spends most of his time up north.

United Dairyfarmers of Victoria president Bernie Free said farmers across several south-west regions were facing water shortages, from the Heytesbury District to Casterton.

“We’ve been talking about carting water to animals as a last resort,” Mr Free said. “But it’s expensive and time consuming.

“Ultimately we need to get the message to the federal government that our economy is driven by agriculture and the whole community is feeling it pretty hard.”

Tahara farmer David Pepper has a few dams for 2500 sheep and 150-head of cattle with “one big dam”, nearly seven hectares, to help them through.

He said they had minimal run-off, and could be pumping water later in the year.

“They’re about what they’d normally be leading into winter, but we’re heading out of winter, that’s the thing,” he said.

Tayla Buttigieg and her mother Jodie indicate where their 30 megalitre dam would usually be filled to. Picture: Rachel Simmonds

Meanwhile in Tasmania, King Island farmers were struggling with on-farm water storages earlier in the year, but Greg Morris said his dam finished filling on Saturday after nearly 70mm fell in 10 days.

“That dam was probably one of the last ones to fill on the island,” he said.

The dam usually holds enough drinking water for 1200 cows, and services Mr Morris’s farm with 400 breeders and his neighbour’s property with about 600-head of cattle.

He said in a normal year, the dam would have filled about two months ago.