Since the mid-1990s, Ann Gardiner has seen water reform change the face of dairy farming in her community, and she has made a conscious effort to stay informed and up-to-date.
“Water and water policy have been changing since 1995, and as farmers, we have been constantly adapting and improving technology so we can continue to produce milk,” Ann said.
She wants to see our communities thriving and continue to be a great place to live.
“Our son Jacob has become a business partner with us and he has heaps of energy and drive for the future,” she said.
“He also has the next generation coming along in our grandson Ted, and another one on the way — we have our eyes looking forward to a profitable future, not just for our own business, but for our community as well.”
It is a well-known fact a thriving irrigation sector supports businesses and communities.
Without it, our communities shrink and are at risk — we lose businesses and services, and we can’t attract quality professionals like doctors and teachers.
“When people leave, we then start to lose our very important community groups like our football clubs,” Ann said.
“The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is the number one thing impacting profitability for a farm business in our region, and if we aren’t there telling our story, the policy makers will continue to make decisions that aren’t good for us.”
She said the reality remained we had been losing volume from the consumptive pool for decades via buybacks and other mechanisms which have had a huge impact, and we had spent large amounts of money investing and adapting to the consequent change.
The business has moved from a traditional spring calving herd to split calving spring and autumn to make better use of rainfall for winter pastures.
They now grow lucerne, forage sorghum, corn and vetch (rotation), winter cereals and annual and permanent rye grasses, and are double cropping to make the most of t/dm per megalitre used.
“When water is available and affordable, we grow as much fodder as we can to store away,” Ann said.
“The problem with that, is rather than reducing debt, we are continually putting money into feed to reduce risk.
“Our cows are queens, and we treat them like royalty, they are always our first priority.”
Four years ago, they bought another farm with a rotary dairy and two years ago began milking on that farm.
“It was always our intention to start milking in the other dairy at some point,” Ann said.
“We live in a closely held area and the pathway to a barn is not on the cards for us in our short-term future.”
They now milk 1200 cows across two farms.
They are close to being self-sufficient for fodder, but have purchased some cereal hay this year, because they are concerned about water allocations for next season.
Ann recently attended the Murray-Darling Basin Authority leadership summit in Brisbane.
“The dairy industry has been very good at collating information about the impacts of this reform, and because it doesn’t fit with the narrative they want, they don’t want to believe what we have to say.
“Tourism will never pick up or replace the scale of agriculture.”
She said from an environmental perspective, the basin plan had been successful at securing water, and they had achieved some good environmental outcomes.
“I was talking with my husband Mark the other day, and we both agreed that water was being used far more efficiently across the region compared with before water reforms and the basin plan kicked in,” Ann said.
There used to be cumbungi growing in the table drains and every paddock had a pair of mountain ducks.
“We weren’t managing our water resources as efficiently as we could, but we certainly are now,” she said.
She said she was pleased to see at the summit a change in narrative and a move toward outcome based rather than volumetric targets.
“The game plan used to be, just buy more water,” Ann said.
“Using science, technology and innovation to achieve outcomes is better because no amount of pouring water down the river will achieve anything.
“It was the first time I have ever heard them talk about the fact that with climate change, it would not be possible to achieve all of the basin goals, no matter how much water they purchased from farmers.
“Like the farming community, the basin plan will have to prioritise the best way to use environmental water to get the most gain.
“They will also need to look at other measures to support more efficient water use.”
Ann said she was concerned about SDLs and how the MDBA will approach the issue of climate change.
“At some stage, we all need to share the burden instead of continually dipping into the consumptive pool,” she said.
“More weight needs to be given to socio-economic impacts and consideration that the plan contains the words ‘working basin’.”