DESPERATE dairy farmers on the Atherton Tableland and beef producers in the gulf are expanding the diet of their stock to include sugarcane and bananas as hay supplies run short.
Lyn French said her family at Gilberton Station in Einasleigh Shire was going into its third season of drought and had offloaded about 1000 head of cattle.
“We started feeding hay again in September but it’s been harder to get hold of,” she said.
“We were very lucky to get some from Aussie Helpers, but I spent five hours on the phone around the middle of November trying to find some more. A truckie told me the cane cockies had cane they couldn’t get rid of, so I rang straight away.”
A truckload straight from the harvest, stalks included, arrived from Tolga soon after.
“We were worried the cattle wouldn’t eat it but they watched it come out of the truck and they were straight into it – they had juice dribbling down their chins.
“We’re probably going to give them sugar diabetes now.”
Lyn said she wasn’t sure of the cane’s nutritional value, but it appeared to be keeping the cattle strong and there weren’t a lot of alternatives.
The price for a road train of cane is $9000, compared to $15,000 for a road train of hay.
Lyn had heard since that truckloads were going to Pentland, Hughenden and Georgetown.
At Millaa Millaa on the Atherton Tableland, dairy farmer James Garrity said people were going as far as Swan Hill in Victoria to source hay, and bananas were a vastly cheaper local alternative.
“We fed bananas by the truckload in 2002, and I’ve heard of blokes here who are once again taking the waste bananas, preferably without stems.”
Sally Cripps
Journalist
Journalist
