TROPICAL cyclones in the north are hopefully indicating a change in the weather and fortunes of the eastern seaboard as the continuing dry takes a grip on rural Australia.
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As drought continues and beef and sheep prices decline, talks of subsidies and assistant packages offer some hope.
I applaud the Minister of Agriculture for taking a stance, however, I wonder why it always seems to get to this point before agriculture receives any financial consideration.
Would it not be more pertinent to look at schemes such as increased water storage and capacity to ensure production on fertile country that could help support drier western areas?
These schemes need not be on massive scales and major decisions such as proposed Tillegra, but weirs and small capacity dams at regular intervals such as those used in Western Montana, US, that provides thousands of acres of production of hay, beef and cereals.
If climate change is upon us, as we are being told, and rainfall more irregular, we desperately need to store more water and in turn produce and store more feed as the present crisis is so clearly demonstrating.
Jim MacCallum is the director of MacCallum Inglis at Scone.
