Farmers across Australia are doing it tough with hay sheds empty across the south, prices soaring and hay heading north to south in a rare reversal of supply flow.
Feed Central managing director Tim Ford says farmers are doing it tough at both ends of the country and prices are climbing — cereal hay is pushing $400/tonne and lucerne is up to $500/tonne.
“Flood recovery is still under way in parts of western Queensland, while many regions in South Australia and Victoria are facing one of the driest autumns on record with empty sheds and key rainfall windows missed,” Mr Ford said.
The tough conditions have led to a rare reversal of the usual supply flow, with good quality hay moving from north to south.
Mr Ford said while Queensland still has stock, this shift and the associated uncertainty means it’s selling faster than usual this season.
He said Australia was used to weather extremes but this season “seems more extreme than ever”.
Many communities are just recovering from prolonged flooding in western Queensland.
About 2000 tonnes of hay was dropped from helicopters and trucked into the flooded regions, but Mr Ford said that had not made a significant impact on the fodder market.
However, the dry conditions in the south are heavily impacting on sellers, suppliers and farmers.
“There is tension in the marketplace and real anxiety about supply,” Mr Ford said.
“Southern regions like to have their autumn break by Anzac Day but that has passed and there has been no rain of significance through vast areas of South Australia and Victoria since then, which means there are zero pastures.”
Mr Ford recently toured clients’ farms in South Australia.
“It was as dry as I’ve ever seen it,” he said. “The dust was ready to go, the soils are very fragile and the groundcover is very low.”
Southern Queensland growers have experienced a run of good seasons but Mr Ford warned against complacency.
“A level of complacency about hay supply has come into the market in Queensland but buyers need to be careful because the hay is going to slip south really quickly,” he said.
“In historical terms, we would never ship hay from Queensland south but the vast majority of South Australia and Victoria is totally exhausted of hay supply. You've got basically every shed empty.
“Hay in southern Queensland is going to be sold down fairly rapidly, fairly soon.”
Most of Queensland remains unaffected by recent fire ant restrictions but most loads require the correct documentation for interstate movement, particularly into South Australia.
Farmers offered hay lifeline
Feed Central’s LocalAg is offering a lifeline to help disaster-impacted farmers access hay.
It is gathering non-binding expressions of interest in sourcing potential hay supplies.
Mr Ford said a coordinated response was needed to assess the magnitude of the disaster and address the urgent needs of farmers.
“People can go to the webpage https://www.localag.com.au/haywanted to register their interest and let us know the quantity of hay they need,” he said.
“Having that data will allow us to have discussions with government around biosecurity protocols, particularly out of Western Australia, and with providers to start coordinating a large-scale freight and logistics plan.”
Mr Ford stressed that farmers completing the form were not signing a binding contract but simply lodging an expression of interest.
He said LocalAg was working on interstate supply options.
“We realise that farmers are doing it tough from both drought and flood and getting data about their needs will allow us to help them.
“We are looking to Western Australia and Queensland for supply options but need to know what is needed so we can make a more complete submission to government and can work through the supply logistics.
“At the moment it’s happening in an ad-hoc way so we need an understanding of the volume required and we may be able to help with a more coordinated approach to address the problem.”
Mr Ford said farmers expressing interest would later have the opportunity to enter a contract once availability was confirmed.
More details can be found at: https://www.localag.com.au/haywanted