NSW farmers struggling to feed livestock in wake of Mid North Coast floods

Australia Broadcast Center

3 days ago

Hay is precious on the Mid North Coast, where paddocks have turned to mud.
Two weeks after record flooding swamped Tony Buttsworth's farm at Moorland, he's handfeeding hundreds of dairy cows with fodder.
They're consuming around nine bales a day — as there are no green pastures left to graze on.
But the lifelong farmer is worried about what will happen when the hay runs out.
"At the moment, everything is just mud and slop and will take a long time to recover … we won't have any feed here until November or December, as grass," he said.
Mr Buttsworth is grateful to have received some supplies through the generosity of Australians.
Nearly two weeks ago, he appeared in an emotional interview with ABC News.
At the time, he was filled with fear — and too exhausted to hide it.
"There's nowhere dry for the cows, there's just no feed," he said tearfully, on May 25.
"I don't know how to get out of this one."
That prompted a show of support from friends and strangers — including some who provided feed for his cattle and others who started a GoFundMe page for his family.
When Mr Buttsworth learned of the efforts to fundraise for his farm, he asked for the money to be donated to Need for Feed, an Australian charity that helps farmers in times of flood and drought.
Over the weekend, the organisation rolled into the Mid North Coast with 15 trucks of fodder — enough to help around 50 farmers.
Need for Feed founder Graham Cockerell said he has since received 150 more requests for help from primary producers from the region.
He believes his team of volunteers will need to make regular hay deliveries to the region for the next three to six months.
"The biggest problem is going to be supply and the cost of that supply," Mr Cockerell said.
Hay is becoming increasingly scarce, and the cost has sky-rocketed in recent months, due to droughts in South Australia, Victoria and parts of New South Wales.
"Six weeks ago, when we were trying to buy a heap of hay for South Australia, we were paying $200 to $250 a tonne," Mr Cockerell said.
With supplies running low on the east coast of Australia, the organisation is considering paying top dollar to import fodder from Western Australia.
There have also been calls for more government support for flood-hit farmers.
This week, the state and federal governments announced they would split the bill to provide $25,000 grants for primary producers and small businesses affected by the disaster.
Premier Chris Minns said he hoped the grants could be scaled up to $75,000 in the weeks ahead.
"I genuinely do accept that this is a start," he told NSW Parliament this week.
NSW Nationals leader Dugald Saunders said farmers had received $75,000 grants after the 2021 floods and that level of support "should be the starting point".
"A dairy farmer who has a million dollars' worth of damage — to offer them a $25,000 grant, quite frankly it's a slap in the face," he said.
Mr Buttsworth agreed larger grants would be needed to help primary producers fix their damaged properties.
"$25,000 won't do much for many farmers who have been completely wiped out — some will never get going again," he said.
The NSW government has not yet requested the highest level of disaster support from the federal government, as it is conducting further assessments of the scale of the damage.
NSW recovery minister Janelle Saffin said this was in line with new federal guidelines, which required disaster grant funding requests to be made in stages.
"This is a start … that's what we can do, put it out there, and then we'll see what else we can do," she said.
In a statement to the ABC, federal Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBainsaid the Commonwealth "will continue to work hand in hand with the NSW Government and of course we will consider any additional funding requests from them when it is asked for".