IN all their budgets, Thallon farmers Theresa and Antony Pilcher have never considered a scenario where they would miss out on two winter crops in a row.
Now, as they face the very real possibility of a third year without a decent wheat crop, the Pilchers say their resolve is being severely tested.
“It’s getting pretty tight,” Theresa said.
“We are probably going to need another 5 or 6 inches (127 or 152mm) to plant in May and it just doesn’t seem to want to come. It’s great to hear that other areas are getting the rain and you never begrudge anyone rain, but it’s bloody hard all the same to be missing out.”
The rain has refused to fall on an unlucky patch of southern Queensland, with many properties in a line west of Talwood remaining critically dry.
The Pilchers have an average annual rainfall of 425mm (17in) on their 3240-hectare property Leithmoor, 16km north of Thallon, but only received 225mm in 2014 and 257mm in 2013.
So far this summer has delivered 25mm at Christmas, 10mm at new year and 37mm a fortnight ago.
Those falls have provided some handy sheep feed but have done little to fill the moisture profile on their 1250ha of dryland cultivation.
The Pilchers bought Leithmoor from Antony’s parents in early 2012 before pulling off their first and only wheat crop.
Since then, they’ve been drawing on the 2012 wheat cheque to make their repayments, while a solid store lamb enterprise has helped meet fixed costs.
Antony has also been working off-farm with a contract spraying rig, but with drought impacting all his regular clients, those jobs have also dried up. Meanwhile, Theresa juggles caring for the couple’s two young children with her part-time job as the Queensland co-ordinator for Partners in Grain. She laughs when asked if they have been able to access federal drought assistance.
“As soon as you earn over $40,000 off-farm you aren’t eligible, so because we do this off-farm work, we haven’t been able to access the household allowance. It doesn’t matter that overall we’re still making a loss.
“It angers me because we are exactly the sort of business that they should be trying to support. We have a solid business model.
“We have spread our risk and we are viable, but it would have been helpful to be able to access some of that assistance while we were struggling through a drought.”
While they wait for the rain, Theresa and Antony are trying to draw on the positives that drought has presented on Leithmoor, 16km north of Thallon. Theresa said less time on tractors has enabled them to focus on fine-tuning their store lamb operation, where they join 1100 Merino ewes to Poll Dorset rams.
This year they pregnancy scanned their ewes for the first time, pulling off and selling any dry ewes to conserve feed.
They also purchased self-feeders and invested in better supplementing their ewes in the six weeks prior to lambing and until the lambs were four months old.
“Last year the number of lambs that went on the truck was only 65 per cent of our ewe numbers. This year by improving the way we’ve fed them, we’ve increased that to 95pc and produced a more valuable lamb. We sold the lambs on AuctionsPlus last week for $95/head so we were delighted.”
Antony has also been busy on the dozer preparing more country for cultivation.
“That’s the good thing about the drought – it’s given us an opportunity to do some development,” Theresa said. “It’s also a good time to really evaluate what we are doing.
“And just as importantly, it has given Antony time to watch the kids grow.”
Penelope Arthur
Journalist for Queensland Country Life at Roma.
Journalist for Queensland Country Life at Roma.
