Floods and Grass

What else is possible?

The last seven months have been exceptional on the farm in that we had not had any where near our average rainfall.  Less than 70mm had fallen since June with Gympie receiving 3mm in the first part of January.  The average is 250mm for January.  Obviously, that was exceeded in the final days of the month.

What this meant was there was no green feed in front of the cows with the exception of 7 hectares of irrigated pasture.  We can now literally watch the grass grow.  It is the end of the growing season but if the heat keeps up we should get plenty of grass for the cows to eat. 

We are so grateful for the rain as November saw a 20% increase in the cost of the organic barley we buy for the cows.  The next load of grain we buy in March will be Sorghum and the price will double.  This is one example of increased costs we are facing.

The following photos will give you some idea of just how dry it has been, the flood and the transformation since.


 

The cows are looking for something juicy but it's not easy to find.



Looking north-west from the house, you can see how dry it had become.

During the worst of the storm, the cows sheltered beside the house to escape the wind and rain.

Our creek becomes a river though it didn't rise as far as it did last year on March 8th. The water in the foreground is flowing through a culvert where the cows normally walk to go to pasture on the other side of the road.

Backed up water on the east side of the driveway.

Post flood. Note the culvert in the centre of the picture.  It gives you an idea of how much land was under water.

The water flowing off the farm was tea-coloured and clear.  This is very exciting for us as farmers, as it indicates no erosion and lots of soakage.

The scorching heat, in the days after the rain, sent the cows into the dam for some relief.

In March we will be installing 'solid-set irrigation' in one section of the farm.  To reduce the cost, we will be installing it ourselves and plan to organise a working bee with as many helpers as possible to make the job as easy as possible.  If you are interested in coming along, please let us know so that we can organise the project.  More details will follow.