Liverpool Plains feels the squeeze of the drought

“We’ve never missed a season,” James Pursehouse said.

“​It’s definitely going to hurt not having a winter income. It’s a significant part of our income [and] it will take its toll down the track."

The young farmer said Breeza Station usually gets a long-term average of 650mm of rain a year but this year, only 103mm has fallen. 

“Our average is 26 inches for the year and we’ve had four inches,” he said.

“At the end of February we had 39mm so nearly half of that was at the end of February.”

Around the region, farmers have given up on getting anything sown because of the ongoing drought. 

“Our ideal planting window passed weeks ago. There's 3-4 weeks either side of the ideal window to plant but that's passed now too,” he said.

“We could physically go and plant it if it rained tomorrow but your yield potential is reduced significantly the longer you push it out.

“We would have planted canola around Anzac Day and then bread wheat in May and durum and chickpeas after that.”

As the paddocks lie empty at Breeza Station, the family is now looking ahead to summer planting, with an early start on fertilisation in irrigation country.

“We’re normally putting this fertiliser down in August but we've made the most of the dry conditions,” Mr Pursehouse said.

“We won’t plant anything until the end of September.

“We’ll have irrigated cotton and corn. Also, dryland sorghum, dryland corn and dryland cotton if it rains enough between now and October. But 30mm of rain won’t do anything – we need inches and inches.”

Lack of rainfall has also affected the Pursehouse’s cattle. Ordinarily, the wieners would be fed on oats but a crop couldn’t be planted this season. 

“We sold all our weaners, probably six weeks ago. Normally they’d go on oats but it was too dry back in March to sow them,” Mr Pursehouse said.

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They still have about 200 head of cattle, which grazed sorghum stubble initially and are now being fed every second day with a mix of barley straw, cotton seed (from their ginned cotton) and rolled wheat. 

“Luckily, we have hay from two years ago,” Mr Pursehouse said.

“We’re feeding cows and heifers and they’re all calving.

“We’ll be right for another couple of months, but then we’ll be desperate.”

The drought is also impacting the Pursehouses within their homes, with rain water tanks depleting rapidly.

“I’ve run out of rain water today,” Mr Pursehouse said on Thursday.

“Dad has run out once. One of the other houses ran out last week, so we’re transferring water from shed tanks into our house tanks. Once we run out of that, I don’t know.

“Just keep on keeping on.”

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