Malcolm Turnbull announces emergency relief

[davidc4430]

Malcolm Turnbull consoles grief-stricken drought charity worker as he announces emergency relief

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-05/federal-drought-relief-for-farmers/10074216

why cant drought affected farmers not go onto a kind of pension, a fortnightly payment, until they recover?

also as droughts are a fact of likfe why is there no plan in place to cover the costs of them, some kind of insurance?

i have watched in the past 11 years whilst ive lived in a wheat producing area 'record crops' year after year.  do farmers not think, well this cant last, maybe i should be putting something away wor when its not raining?

[lyndal1838]

David you should do some more reseach.......

Farmers have special bank accounts to put money aside during the good years....there are all sorts of conditions attached to them.

There is a special payment for farmers.....similar to a pension but with very strict criteria for being able to receive it such as the value of their land which is effectively useless during  a bad drought.   Many farmers are not even aware of it and this is now being addressed by the government....and the land value criteria is being relaxed.

[lyhargr_0]

---

@davidc4430 wrote:

Malcolm Turnbull consoles grief-stricken drought charity worker as he announces emergency relief

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-05/federal-drought-relief-for-farmers/10074216

why cant drought affected farmers not go onto a kind of pension, a fortnightly payment, until they recover?

also as droughts are a fact of likfe why is there no plan in place to cover the costs of them, some kind of insurance?

i have watched in the past 11 years whilst ive lived in a wheat producing area 'record crops' year after year.  do farmers not think, well this cant last, maybe i should be putting something away wor when its not raining?

---

David many farmers DO try to put something away, but it's not always possible. A cpl of years ago I watched my 80 year old neighbour leave home at 5am, so she could go and pump from the river to cart to her farm so her cows would have something to drink that day. The last couple of years beef prices have been up, so she has been able to put in another dam, fix some badly rotting fences, buy in some much needed hay etc etc.  Farms aren't cheap to run and there is usually not much left over once everything has been paid for that year.

[davidc4430]

i'm not blaming farmers, its just the whole 'we are in a drought, save us' has been going on way too long. lets get a plan so when they happen farmers arnt losing their stock, their farms or their lives.

govt allways waits until its a crisis before throwing some cash at it.

perhaps a royal commission into farming ought to be a plan and out of it a real future proofing of our farming industry.

we must have some smart people who can figure out a plan for how to decide when its a drought before we have news stories of starving animals and farmers committing suicide.

farmers deserve a good living from what they do. like the milk farmers who see their milk being sold for less than it costs to make it, or egg farmers in the same boat.

seems to me there are big problems in farming and drought is the icing on the cake.

big players like coles and woolies should not be allowed to coerce farmers into selling their produce for less than it costs to grow under threat of not selling it at all.

i read something recently about the numbers of farmers giving up and walking away from the family farms that have been going for generations, the numbers were scarey.

[esseco46]

Some farmers don't get paid for their produce/stock for maybe a year or so - depends on the price. This happens to sheep farmers and they have to find money to live on (this is for the wool clip) until then let alone that there is a drought making it almost impossible to live on the land.

[chameleon54]

Its harsh I know, but farmers need to take more responsability for preparing for drought. .......

How would I know ? I have grew up in and have spent most of my life farming marginal, semi arid country. I still own a farm 10 km. from unsettled, remote desert country which is currently affected by the drought. We are down to our last 2 bales of hay out there, but still have a good handle on it all. Stock are in good condition with older lambs shorn last week in preperation for sale and around half of the spring lambing ewes, succesfully raising twins.

How have we done it ?

We where hit hard by the millenium drought and made the decision to diversify our land holdings, purchasing a small farm, 250 km. away in one of the wettest areas of SA, 20 minutes drive from Adelaide. We moved to the area and have become known in the community and leased further farms nearby. This allows us to move sheep around depending on weather conditions. The remote property often recieves summer cyclonic storm rainfall and being desert type country, responds to the rain very quickly. When its dry, the hills country is often highly productive. Add to this, five new dams dug in seven years, purchasing hay cheaply several years ago when it was in abundance and storing it and keeping several different breeds of sheep and we have the diversity to ride the drought out. 

Farms are becoming corporatised, with many family businesses turning over several million dollars per year. These businesses have the economic capacity to ride out the droughts and dont need government assistance. Small farms ( like mine ) will eventually be swallowed up by the larger players who will become even more efficient, making government drought funding a thing of the past. Cruel I know, and my kids wont be taking over my small farm business, but thats the way it is.