09-05-2025
Mass livestock sell-off as farmers run out of feed and water amid drought
Farmers running out of feed and water for their stock are being forced to sell animals in huge numbers as drought conditions roll on in southern Australia.
Some farmers have been handfeeding livestock and trucking in water for the past 18 months.
But they are reaching a breaking point, where the cost and logistics are too much — so they are selling their stock.
Brie Lewis farms near Cavendish, in the foothills of the Grampians, in western Victoria.
She said the drought was dealing a crippling financial and mental blow.
"We don't really have a choice but to buy feed, so we're just buying in feed and spending so much money," she said.
"It could be anywhere from $7,000 to $10,000 or even more, every week, and we would have spent upward of $250,000 just last season alone."
Ms Lewis said some people had reached breaking point.
"Who knows how much longer this is going to go on for?" she said.
Rainfall data shows many parts of southern Australia have received close to or even their lowest totals on record in the past 18 months.
Ron Rutledge is the livestock operations manager for Nutrien in southern Australia.
He said in recent weeks, there had been a huge jump in current and future breeding stock being sold off.
"We're calculating an extra 30 to 35 per cent of calves are being sold at the moment. We're seeing high numbers of cows being slaughtered, and in the sheep sector, one in five ewes sold for processing have probably got a lamb inside them," he said.
He said grain was getting harder to source, hay was scarce and water shortages were critical.
"People have got to do their budgets with their livestock analysts and ask if it is really worth putting hay and grain down the throat of the animal," he said.
Mr Rutledge said the Victorian government needed to do more to support struggling farmers, and said freight subsidies should be available for things like trucking in water and sending sheep away on agistment.
Michael Purcell is a cattle producer from Acheron, in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range, north-east of Melbourne.
He spoke to ABC Rural at the Wodonga saleyards, where he was selling most of his calves as part of a massive 6,000-head yarding.
"We've pretty much run out of feed, so all the calves had to go so we can try and keep the cows through to the spring," he said.
Mr Purcell said one positive in an otherwise grim situation was that cattle prices were holding up reasonably well — which often did not happen in drought conditions when markets were flooded with livestock.
"Clearly the rain in the north has grown a lot of feed," he said.
He said he was not banking on seasonal conditions improving anytime soon.
"I like the line, 'If you want to make God laugh, make a plan', so there are a lot of things that can change between now and spring," he said.
Mark Billing heads up the advocacy group Dairy Farmers Victoria and is a dairy farmer at Larpent, in south-west Victoria.
He said while the cost of buying in fodder was enormous, water shortages were hitting even harder in the dairy sector, given the enormous water requirements of dairy cows.
He said while he did not support subsidies for transporting fodder — given they had been shown to push up the price of fodder — water transport subsidies were desperately needed.
"I think the best we can do is make sure the government is fully aware of what's happening and how critical the situation is," he said.
The South Australian, Victorian and Tasmanian governments have all announced varying drought support schemes.
In South Australia, drought support now totals $73 million, while in Victoria there is a $13.5 million package and in Tasmania, a $4.8 million scheme.
In Victoria, the majority of that funding is in the form of infrastructure grants, where farmers in eligible local government areas can apply for up to $5,000 on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
An Agriculture Victoria spokesperson said more than 1,569 grants had been provided to primary producers "to upgrade farm water systems, install stock containment areas, and to purchase grain and fodder storage infrastructure".
The spokesperson did not say whether freight subsidies for transporting livestock and water were being considered.
