Sunday, November 20, 2022

The cost of water for our dams

 It 's mid November 2022(20th) and very few farmers in SW Australia have made hay or even silage.
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The weekly deluges highlight the very poor drainage of most of our soils and the impact of soil drainage and sun on slowing growth in springs like these. Farmers and cows can't get onto paddocks because they will get bogged. 
Our dams are full right across the SW of Australia with reservoirs like Dartmouth and the Thompson ( drought storages ) overflowing. It takes that rare time when soils are wet for the very rare flows in rivers. This is Australia Mate !


The only places I have seen with the bales done in our long trip through NSW and Victoria have been in well drained soils of Dune limestone in Warnambool ( picture here ) and a few places up near Mansfield . 

Those of us who have ever made hay in Australia know that the English expression " Make hay while the sun shines " is inadequate .
Most of Western Europe has better drained soils than ours. In the land of droughts and flooding rains, you get the mower out when it's still raining and even then you run high risks of losing it.
So much so that many farmers would leave hay making till this time of year when the weather was better , but the grasses had gone to seed and the feed quality poor.

Its a tough life so pay extra people .