Murraylands farmers face tough season amid 2024 drought conditions

Coorong Mayor Paul Simmons is calling on the state government to provide help to farmers affected by drought conditions.

Murraylands farmers face tough season amid 2024 drought conditions
The Monarto Agricultural Bureau looked at a wide range of crops and farming practices on their annual crop walk. Photo: David Miegel.

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Farmers across the Murraylands, Coorong, and Mallee are doing it tough for the 2024 season.

Rainfall in the Murraylands has been critically low during this year’s growing season.

From April to September, Murray Bridge received a total of 86.2 millimetres of rainfall.

David Miegel, president of the Monarto Agricultural Bureau, said 140mm was the ideal average amount of rain farmers in the area usually looked for.

"It's made it extremely difficult to get crops sown, germinated, established, and then get them growing throughout the year as well," he said.

On top of this, crops that were half respectable have now been affected by recent frosts, so many farmers were flat out cutting hay, he said.

"I think there's going to be something done now... across the whole region," he said.

"It's not just the Coorong, it's going to be the Murray Bridge area, and Murray Mallee ... there's just a large area.

"There's going to have to be something subsidised, especially if we're going to have to be carting feed from interstate."

Mr Miegel has used this year as a personal learning experience for what farming techniques worked well compared to what didn't.

"(It's) been a bit of an eye opener, what crops have done well with very little rainfall, but also where we've controlled our summer weeds, our crops are a lot better," he said.

Farmers in the area are starting to pay drought prices for hay and grain.

"I would consider this close to a drought, only because we're already paying, and seeing high prices because of the season," he said.

Sheep being hearded in Coonalpyn. Photo: Tracey Strugnell

Mayor Paul Simmons calls for state action

Coorong District Council’s Mayor has stated that it is time to acknowledge that the
driest season ever on record in the Coorong district is a drought.

Mayor Paul Simmons says that the rainfall received for the growing season in 2024 is the lowest on record, after having already experienced a dry spring in 2023.

Severely limited crop and pasture growth and recent frosts have been the final straw in killing any hope of a reprieve for primary producers this year.

“To a great extent farmers across our region have shown great resilience over recent years in regard to seasonal variability, increasing input costs and high interest rates,” Mr Simmons said.

Local producers had been proactive in investing on farm, ensuring resilience in areas such as fodder reserves and storage, water security technology, and livestock management improvements, he said.

“However, this season is presenting challenges beyond what these improvements can offset.”

The seasonal outlook for the Coorong district looks very challenging with some certainty now of poor crop yields, severe impacts on the ability to produce hay, and very poor growth in livestock feed.

“As a broad-acre farmer, I’m more than aware that these drought conditions are
impacting nearly all other agricultural areas across the state," he said.

Mr Simmons is seeking a meeting with the Premier, Peter Malinauskas, to discuss what support may be put in place to assist affected primary producers.

The mayor encouraged those that may be feeling the strain to seek support from family, friends, or local mental health providers and support agencies.

Rainfall is less than half of what it would usually be

According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Murray Bridge has a yearly average rainfall of 348.1mm.

This year the region has received a 62 per cent decrease, with a total of 131mm in 2024 so far.

A spokesperson for the bureau said rainfall in most of the Murraylands had been below average this year.

Not only this, but daily temperatures have risen above average, they said.

"In the past 10 years, rainfall has been fluctuating between below and above average," they said.

"It is likely to very likely (60 to 80% chance) that rainfall will be above average in Murraylands in the following months (October to December)," the spokesperson said in a statement.

The bureau has predicted warmer than usual temperatures across spring for South Australia.

Parts of the state's southern agricultural areas and parts of the north have a slightly increased chance of above average spring rainfall.

This follows a prolonged period of dry conditions that have continued in the south-east of the state this year.

The forecast fortunately shows a more typical range of spring rainfall likely for the rest of the state.

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