AS THE dry spell stretches on farmers are finding it harder to source quality feed and brokers are turning to irrigated growers in Victoria and South Australia to re-route hay that was destined for export.
But fuel costs combined with premium prices means tight calculations all round.
John Webster at Quirindi Grain and Produce said this is “one of the toughest campaigns I’ve been involved in, just getting the grain, getting product for people is becoming increasingly difficult.
“There’s a fair bit of homework trying to get the right product for people.”
He said prices just kept going up and he couldn’t quote from one week to the next.
“Everything is volatile, grains are volatile, faba beans went up $20 in a week and they’re running out,” said Mr Webster.
“White cottonseed has gone up $15 in a fortnight and every grain now has a three in front of it (selling for $300-plus a tonne).”
On Saturday he received a B-double of good, heavy oaten hay from Sea Lake, Victoria, that had been destined for the export market.
He expects a road train towards the end of the week.
Mr Webster said he knew of barley coming from Victoria that was headed for the Darling Downs and reckoned it would be pretty hard to make it pay.
“And it’s started to cool down, there’s been a few frosts in the New England and we’re going into winter short of feed and short of water,” he said.
Mr Webster said grain should be moved interstate by ship to cap transport costs.
In Western NSW it’s no better. Damien Doyle, “Wistaton”, Euabalong, said as the season progressed he was feeding out oats and barley he had stored rather than cashing in and selling it.
“I’ve probably sold too much early on, really,” he said.
Mr Doyle said he had about 130 tonnes of chickpeas he intends to clean himself and remove byproduct – cracked peas, light peas, husks and hulls – for feeding his own stock.
He said there was plenty of people looking for quality feed, but a lot of growers were digging up pits of barley to feed to their own stock.
“People are getting tight with their oats,” he said – understandably so – Mr Doyle is currently feeding out about 12 to 15 tonnes a week.
In the Central West growers are downsizing herds.
Duncan Klowes, “Valdemar”, Millthorpe, said the Central West was in “uncharted waters”.
He reckons he’ll be looking to offload older cows by the end of the month if it doesn’t rain and it doesn’t sit well with him.
“It’s all good and well for consultants to recommend selling and then restocking, but you can’t buy our genetics off the shelf,” he said.
Owen Gillespie at Lachlan Steel, Cowra, said sales of lick feeders and bale feeders had gone “through the roof”.
