The challenge of conducting a viable farming operation through variable seasons is not something Jim Morgan takes lightly, and he will not gamble his business against lack of preparedness.
He has seen many dry periods and droughts on the property Cooinda, he and his wife Shirley operate east of Lockhart, and he is not prepared to call the current drought the worst he has ever experienced.
“We are quite used to dry times, that is why I am prepared for this one,” he said.
“But I do remember being told many years ago by an agronomist it doesn't pay to make hay and I looked him fair in the face and said to him … one day it will.”
For Mr Morgan, hay in his hayshed is the insurance policy against dry times, because he considers the welfare of his cattle to be of paramount importance.
“It is just in case … every year I won’t pull out of it, but I am not forced to sell my stock in a dry time because I can fall back on the reserves in my shed,” he said.
Mr Morgan remembers the 1965 drought as being tough, but he was still at school. He started work on the farm in 1967 and he still considers that time to be worse than the current drought.
“This is very similar to 1967, we managed to sow our crops in mid-May and there was very little follow-up rain,” he recalled.
“The difference is now we can turn our crops into hay a lot easier with the round bales compared to the little square bales we used to make.”
In 1967 Mr Morgan measured 190mm (749 points) and he said it is the driest year ever during his stewardship of Cooinda.
“1971 and ‘72 were quite dry years, but during the 1982 drought, I sent cattle right up to the North Coast and it was very similar to this one,” Mr Morgan said.
“We managed to sow our crops but there was very little follow-up rain and on the first of October I made the decision to send cattle away.”
Although the current drought has some similarities with previous dry periods, Mr Morgan said there was one big difference in that this time there was nowhere for stock to be sent.
“In ‘82, a friend and I boxed our cattle and sent them up to Taree,” he recalled.
“It was almost a disaster; we didn’t know … we were young players then.
“You can take stock from the coast inland and they do really well, but we got the shock of our lives.”
Mr Morgan remembers his cattle were on what he thought was good feed, but it was kikuyu grass and it didn’t have any value, for cattle not adapted to it.
A run of ten good years followed until 1994, which he described as being ‘very droughty’: other drought years included the period 2002 to 2009 (with 2005 being an exception).
“So we are quite used to, in this area, cutting our crops for hay,” he said.
“In 2004 we did, in 2006 there was none to cut … it was terrible here, actually 2006 was the biggest disaster year that I can recall.
“Everyone got nothing in 2006 … and in 2007, ‘08 and ‘09 we all cut our crops for hay but we did alright because we were able to sell it to the dairy farmers in the Goulburn Valley who hadn’t received a water allocation.”
In summing up his experience with dry periods and droughts, Mr Morgan acknowledges this one is different in that it is so widespread, right across most of the eastern states.
“But at least through here we do have a little bit to work on,” he mused.
Jim Morgan doesn’t normally sell his steers until November. He likes to grow them out on grass, finishing them for the local trade or backgrounding for feedlots; but this year he acknowledges he could see the ‘writing on the wall’.
“I started selling stock in July, although I didn’t get the price I would have liked, but a month later it was looking like a great return,” he said.
Don’t be sentimental about your operation is his fervent opinion; and cutting a canola crop for hay which could have been worth a lot of money if the oilseed had been given the chance to develop was his pragmatic option.
“Now that it has been salvaged for hay there is still great value in it,” he said.
“I’m getting about five bales to the hectare and they are very heavy bales.”
His decision to go early and cut the crops while they were at their peak nutritional value, and not wait for an unexpected fall of rain has proved correct.
In the middle of September, Mr Morgan considered the weather forecasts for the eastern Riverina and the prediction wasn’t encouraging.
“It certainly didn’t look like it was going to rain any time during the next fortnight so I could see the opportunity to make the hay without any risk of weather damage,” he said.
Mr Morgan is not considering the sale of the hay conserved as it was always his intention to feed it to his cattle as they have priority in his operation.
“This will now allow me to get our calves through to a decent weight at weaning and if I’m still forced into selling my cows I will,” he said.
“But I won’t fall into a trap and let my cows lose too much condition.”
Having a store of hay is further allowing Mr Morgan to sell steers in forward condition for a good return which has been a peculiarity of this drought; quality stock continue to be sought after by restockers, feedlots and processors at commensurate values.
“I’ve been selling over the past two months, and although the market fluctuates I have sold steers up to $1246,” he said.
“They went earlier than normal, but that is money in my pocket even allowing for the value of the hay I have fed them.”
Turning his crops into hay has a further benefit in that he doesn’t have to buy at current prices to feed his cattle through this period which Mr Morgan reasonably expects to last until at least the middle of next year.
At current values at $400/t, Mr Morgan has calculated he would be spending in the vicinity of $290,000 to maintain the condition of his herd until the autumn break.
“I’m not going there,” he said, adding he would sell all of his stock, knowing he could buy in again.
“I believe that paying freight subsidies to farmers for the movement of fodder only increases the cost of fodder and it is the person selling the fodder that benefits.”
