Gunnible Pastoral Company began feeding out the leftovers from their orange juice makings to cattle on their Telba property near Carroll on Monday night as a way of diversifying feed.

Gunnible’s, Edward Hoddle, said the need for the alternative form of feed was “born out of necessity”.

“It has been so dry and we would normally have planted a winter oat crop to feed the cattle, but we have not been able to do that this year,” Mr Hoddle said.

“We have been supplementing feed with things like cotton seed and molasses, but to be able to feed them something as sweet as this is truly a lifeline.”

Mr Hoddle said the unusual source of feed was made possible by the company’s juicing partners.

“This type of feed is actually a really positive case of sustainability,” he said.

“Not only is it about farm to plate, it’s also about back to farm which I think is great.

“Our juicing partners, East Coast Beverages have been fantastic in not only juicing our product, but in terms of their assistance of Australian farmers during the drought.

“As well as delivering the peels after juicing, members of East Coast Beverages have also been around Gunnedah handing out water to people that may no longer have access to it, which is great.

“They are an Australian owned, family operated company and truly understand how tough things are, and are doing what they can to help, which I believe deserves recognition.”

The Gunnible Pastoral Company team member said the feed would be of nutritional benefit to the stock.

“Basically the feed itself is made up of the leftovers of oranges after they have been juiced,” Mr Hoddle said.

“It’s mostly peels but there is also plenty of orange flesh and juice still among the loads as well.

“I imagine the juice of something so sweet for the cows out there in the dusty paddocks would be very nice.

“In terms of nutritional value, we have been told that the Department of Primary Industries have said that the oranges would be very good for the cows.”

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Mr Hoddle said the company would consider continuing with the feed source.

“At this stage I’d say it’s highly likely we will continue to feed them oranges and the leftovers,” he said.

“The idea I suppose is just to give them something that will help carry them through this dry winter period and hopefully until the drought breaks.

“It’s a tough time all around and truthfully we are very glad to have this option available to us.”