With Stock Routes depleted, now is the time to plan stock management
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With Stock Routes depleted, now is the time to plan stock management
Drovers and graziers across the Goondiwindi region are really feeling the pinch with recent conditions having deteriorated to the point where even the local stock route network can no longer support further grazing.
Goondiwindi Regional Council Mayor Graeme Scheu said feed and water levels across the region’s stock routes were depleted.
‘The state of feed in the region is as bad as we’ve seen it and, unfortunately, the stock routes are no different,’ Cr Scheu said.
‘The last few drovers we’ve had on the routes are leaving the region now – even they are struggling to find enough feed or water to move stock through safely,’ said Goondiwindi Regional Council Natural Resource Management Officer Bec Morrissy.
Without the back-up plan of a well-grassed stock route, Ms Morrissy said that now was the time for graziers and drovers to reassess their strategies for managing their stock in the coming months.
‘The next three months until winter are going to be critical as our main pasture-growing period,’ Ms Morrissy said. ‘But even if we do snag some rain in that time, the chance of the stock routes recovering in time to grow good feed before winter is low.’
Council’s rural services team will continue to assess stock route applications as they come in, but the unfortunate reality is that permits cannot be approved where there is insufficient pasture or water.
December and January are usually the region’s wettest months, but with parts of southeast Queensland set to break the record for the driest January ever, the situation across many regional councils is looking bleak. Cr Scheu said that unfortunately many of our neighbouring regions and further west were in the same boat.
‘It’s important that people plan for alternative options for their stock and don’t just rely on the stock route – in our region or elsewhere - as an emergency option, because the feed is simply not there,’ Cr Scheu said.
‘I want to encourage people to be realistic in their stock management and to make sure they have a strategy in place now to get them up to and through the winter.’
Resources are available to help plan stock management during drought. For more information, visit: https://www.business.qld.gov.au/industries/farms-fishing-forestry/agriculture/rural-disaster-recovery/drought
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For more information, please contact:
Jason Quinnell, Director Community & Corporate Services
Goondiwindi Regional Council
Phone: 07 4671 7402
Email: JQuinnell@grc.qld.gov.au
Image caption: Gabbie Pike and Emily Banks are among the drovers moving their stock from the region due to lack of feed.
