Every family needs a Farmer and every Farmer needs a Townie

 

“Every family needs a farmer and every farmer needs a townie” these are the words that were spoken by Jimmy Smith to me when I recently took a drive to meet him and his wife Sandra. They own and run Cotswold Hills a 60 000 acre property about an hour southwest of Winton.  However I wasn’t fortunate enough to visit their lovely home on this day as they haven’t been living at home for the last 12 months or so. They haven’t had rain at Cotswold Hills for about 2 years so their dams are bone dead dry and they have no feed for 1000 or so head of cattle. I had met Jimmy and Sandra in passing but didn’t learn the true strength of character and resilience until this visit. The word stoic was generated by an ancient Greek school of philosophy that asserted that happiness can only be achieved by accepting life's ups and downs as the products of unalterable destiny. Stoic is the perfect description for this couple grasping at the few grass picks around them. They were kind, generous, affable and some of the most optimistic and positive people I’ve met in my life.

Jimmy & Sandra Smith

Anyway I digress, back to the story of where I went today. I took a drive, well actually Mr Bumpkin drove and I happily gazed out the passenger window while Miss Bumpkin and Master Bumpkin watched a bit of Playschool and had a doze in the back.  We drove about 45 minutes west of Winton to a place called Collingwood Reserve and no there wasn’t a magpie or pies supporter in sight, but then again I didn’t see anyone else besides Jimmy, Sandra and a few hundred head of cattle.

They’re adgisting their cattle on this stock route, to simplify things, they’re renting land that has some grass (not a lot, but more than their dirt ridden paddocks at home) so that they can feed their cattle. Jimmy tells me that the Reserve is quite literally a block of about 8000 acres, he has had to put up fences to keep his cattle off the road and provide his own watering points (troughs with big tanks near them to keep their cattle hydrated). So just because he’s renting the land doesn’t mean it comes with any facilities. The Smith’s have had cattle (about ¼ what they normally run) here for almost a month and are required to vacate and find somewhere else to adgist their cattle just days before Christmas. They can’t go home as there’s no water or feed and they technically aren’t entitled to request another permit from the local council until the new year. For the townies amongst us, out here you can have 2 x 28 day permits to run stock on stock routes per calendar year. This is the second permit the Smith’s have held in 2014 so they can’t apply again until the near year but the problem is the drought is so far reaching out here that adgistment options are very few. When I asked where to from here, they responded “we don’t know”,   they’re waiting patiently for Huey or god or whoever to graciously send some rain. But just like money doesn’t grow on trees, grass doesn’t grow overnight and due to the extremely dry period from 2011-2014 the Smith’s and everyone out here needs rain events, or follow up rain as it’s so dry the grass needs a number of rain events for it to rejuvenate. To put it into perspective, usually by the end of November the Winton area would on average receive 345mm of rain, so far this year it’s been 156mm and by this time last year it was 141mm (source http://www.eldersweather.com.au). These recordings are taken from the Winton Airport just outside of town, Cotswold Hills which is about 100km from Winton has been lucky to receive a passing shower at best over the last two years. We live about 15km from town and had one rain event last year providing us 23mm, we’ve had two rain events this year (nine months apart) sending down about 120mm so you can understand how differing the figures can be.

Jimmy and Sandra tend to their cattle every day, there’s no such thing as a public holiday or weekend. Cattle have to eat and drink everyday so there’s no rest for them. They truck five loads of water in the morning and two in the afternoon to three watering points across the Reserve, although not “hard” work it’s time consuming and there is no way to multi task as one needs to supervise the pumping process. The cattle’s main feed is the grass and a supplement of lick block, which provides stock with energy, protein and minerals to keep them in good condition. There’s no one tending to Cotswold Hill’s so they’re going back and forth every few days to check on things back home. They’re living in a converted horse float under a lonely tree and are completely self sufficient. Most would call this camping, however I’m not sure there would be many opting for camping in 40+ degree heat, the horse float has air conditioning but struggles with the concept of blowing cool air in such treacherous conditions.

Jimmy and Sandra's makeshift home

Five Star Kitchen

Dining, meeting and whatever else required room

Jimmy has lived in the Winton area most his life and cattle is in his blood, Sandra grew up down the road in Boulia which is 370km from Winton, (yes that’s considered down the road out here). They have two children Gavin and Justin, Gavin is in on the family business too and also helps with his wife’s family property in the Winton area. When I ask when do you think you’ll be able to go home – when it rains and by that they mean a number of rain events, a heavy shower isn’t going to save their livelihood this time. 

Joy and happiness was brought to the Smith family earlier this year when Gavin’s wife Jodie gave birth to their first grandchild Aaron. Unfortunately if the extreme weather conditions continue and there’s no rain Jimmy may not be able to leave the Reserve to enjoy his grandson’s first Christmas there’s even a chance that Gavin may have to help out on the day. The Smith’s story is unfortunately one of many; on 30 October 2014 ABC reported 46 properties in the Longreach area were in the process of being repossessed due to unpaid loans. 

So you ask, what can you do to help? Buy local, support local and keep a farmer in business. Every meal or snack we eat can be grown, bought and produced in Australia, if we don’t support our local businesses then there will soon be none left. As Jimmy said every family needs a farmer and every farmer needs a townie to produce, manufacture and sell the product. You can help farming families by supporting organisations such as Buy a Bale of Hay and Aussie Helpers, these organisations are travelling the country providing relief, hope and assistance to those who need it most.

As I was wrapping up my talk with Jimmy and Sandra over my shoulder were some dark and promising looking clouds, unfortunately on this day no rain eventuated, however please keep farmers in your thoughts and hope and pray clouds like these lead to rain today, tomorrow, next week and for many weeks over the Christmas / New Year period and beyond. 

When celebrating the festive season this year buy fresh, buy local and spare a thought for those who are doing it tough right around the country.