Sam Neumann’s father saved his earnings as a shearer to buy their farm, Redgums, near Truro on the eastern side of the Barossa Ranges in South Australia, 55 years ago. It’s grown into a thriving sheep farm. But this year, Neumann says they have culled any unproductive stock and the remaining 400 merino ewes are lambing in bare paddocks.
“It’s just red dirt,” she says.
“You feel like you failed, and you don’t know what you could have done differently or when it will end.
“It is really heartbreaking, because they told us we’d have a break in April, and then they pushed it back to May, and now they’re saying there’s no good rain, maybe for another six or eight weeks.”
The last meaningful rain at Truro was recorded in November 2022, and the tally for the first four months of this year is a paltry 33.5mm.
It’s a similar story across South Australia and Victoria, where farmers are braced for drought conditions to worsen.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest climate outlook warns below average rainfall is likely from May to July in those regions, while day and night-time temperatures are expected to be warmer than average across most of Australia.
That’s not good news for sheep, cattle and dairy producers in regions which have experienced their driest 14-month period on record.
The prolonged dry spell, stretching up to nine years in some areas, is pushing farmers to their limits, forcing them to make difficult decisions and exacting a heavy emotional toll.
Eyre Peninsula sheep and crop producer Leonie Mills, who is principal of Morley Poll Merino Stud, doesn’t need binoculars to tell where her sheep are – she just looks for the cloud of dust raised by their hooves as they wander paddocks that are “getting barer by the day”.
Like most other livestock producers, Leonie and her husband, Jon, have cut sheep numbers – in their case by 40% – but the failure of hay crops in the past two years has forced them to buy in extra hay and barley to hand-feed core breeding stock.
Mills estimates they’ve spent $120,000 on hay alone, paying for it by drawing down on their Farm Management Deposits – money they set aside during good years.
“I hope they never stop farmers from being able to use those because that’s the only way you can make yourself a little bit resilient,” she says.
‘Some events you can’t plan for’
Livestock SA chief executive officer Travis Tobin says the drought is “the worst they’ve ever experienced” for some people.
“Livestock production occurs on about 84% of the state’s agricultural land,” he says.
“There’s areas of the state that are doing it extraordinarily difficult, and have been for years.”
Tobin says many farmers had sold some stock, while some were buying in feed to carry larger numbers, and others had sold all their sheep or cattle.
A positive note has been the relatively stable prices for good quality animals, compared to 2023 when they collapsed by 70% after the market was flooded by eastern states producers fearing a return to El Niño would bring drought.
“It is very challenging for a lot of producers,” he says.
“The longer it goes, the harder it gets … and there are some events that you can’t plan for, no matter how much you do.”
Across the border in south-west Victoria, Warrnambool dairy farmer Bernie Free milks 650 friesian cows and has been buying hay and silage for the past three months.
Free, who is Victorian Farmers’ Federation (VFF) United Dairyfarmers of Victoria president, expects his own silage supplies to run out in the next month.
“Then we’ll be on full imported feed, which is going to make the budget look pretty ordinary,” he says.
“I’ve never fed this amount of feed in the 30 years that I’ve been farming.
“And then you’ve got people down in the Heytesbury area [on the south-west coast] that are running out of dam water, and they have no other water than dam water to give their cows a drink.”
Feed Central regional sales manager Alex Smith says cereal hay prices have risen about $20-$30 a tonne to about $350/tonne for big square bales on the back of lower production in South Australia and Victoria last year and higher demand.
Charities such as Rural Aid have been running hay drops into South Australia for the past year, and more recently began coordinating deliveries by water tankers to top up household water supplies.
Since July, Rural Aid support to South Australia includes more than 2,400 hay bales to 173 farmers, 2.4m litres of fresh drinking water to 100 farmers, and $66,000 in prepaid Visa cards to 121 farmers.
Rural Aid chief executive officer John Warlters says the hay drops have become an informal social gathering where farmers can talk about their experiences with others and also chat with a counsellor.
“What’s most important is giving people the opportunities to continue to have hope that they will be supported, that they will get what they need, and that they will be able to get through the circumstances they have in front of them,” he says.
Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Jonathan Pollock says conditions across southern Australia have been dominated by slow-moving high pressure systems.
“We’re not likely to see a quick recovery from these rainfall deficiencies based on forecasts for May and June,” he says.
After extensive lobbying by farm groups, the South Australian government last month announced $55m in extra drought assistance, on top of an $18m relief package announced in November.
The Victorian government also announced a $13.5m drought package focusing on 12 local government areas in the south-west
Agriculture Victoria executive director, Dougal Purcell, says other supports include low interest loans through the Regional Investment Corporation, the Farm Household Allowance and free advice through the Rural Financial Counselling Service.
“We’re monitoring seasonal conditions very closely right across the state,” he says.
Farm groups, including the VFF/UDV and National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) are continuing to lobby for greater drought support in the 2025-26 Victorian budget to be handed down on 20 May, and from the newly re-elected Albanese government.
“Drought dries up more than land. It drains local economies, family budgets and wellbeing,” NFF president David Jochinke says. “It’s not just farmers who feel it, it’s entire rural and regional communities.”
