Australian Farmers "Prepare For The Worst" - Crops Failing As Spring Begins

[hatrack]

EDIT

Farming families are a tough, resilient bunch and they've endured droughts before. Last year, after 10 years of below average rainfall, the big dry was officially declared the mother of all droughts, the one-in-100-year event that couldn't be planned for. But 2007 was going to be different. This year, the rains did arrive in July - heavy, soaking stuff that fell right across the state.

The weather experts also began to point to a wetter than average spring. And so, for the first time in more than a decade, farmers dared to hope that maybe, just maybe, this was the beginning of the end of the big dry. For many Mallee and Wimmera grain growers, the July rains kicked off the best start to the season in decades. After years of struggle and mounting debt, this was the year to get out of jail. So they rolled the dice and borrowed again, planting every piece of dirt they owned.

And it hasn't rained since. And now they are watching their future shrivel and die under the spring sun. They are not alone. Irrigators watched as July rains hit the catchments supplying the Hume, Dartmouth and Eildon dams.

These massive dams were built to support the thousands of farmers who rely on irrigation water across northern Victoria. The irrigators crossed their fingers that the dams would fill. But the rains barely registered and little has come since. Today, they have never been emptier.

EDIT

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22499885-5000117,00.html

[NMDemDist2]

1. just talked to my FIL (wheat farmer/WA,ID) and he said wheat hit $10 this morning

on the spot market in Portland.....

they are waiting for rain up there to put in the winter wheat, he said "It's like a dust bowl up here" so they are holding off on the fall planting

He farms in one of the most beautiful parts of wheat country, the Palouse

[phantom power]

2. "The worst" is that we all die. And take the rest of the biosphere with us.

I wonder if anybody is preparing for that.

[GliderGuider]

3. Tom Joad goes to Melbourne.

Jesus that sounds awful.

[pscot]

4. What a kick in the balls!

n/t

[amandabeech]

5. This is really serious.

Before you know it, people will be chopping down the second growth in the east and putting in corn and potatoes.

One thing that might happen is that farmers near metro areas may be able to hang on to their land rather than sell it to developers. Housing prices in the tank, foreclosures and high wheat prices may save some of our farmland from being paved over.