Stock feed prices are rising as widespread floods take out key fodder-growing regions in eastern Australia, causing an increase in farming costs that will be passed on to consumers.
According to Dairy Australia, wet weather has hindered usual hay, silage and grain production, with harvesting and processing delayed as fields dry out – if the crop hasn’t been destroyed entirely.
Dairy Australia commissions the Hay report through the Australian Fodder Industry Association.
It found that what hay is available may be of reduced quality.
“There are expectations of supply shortfalls of both cereal and protein hays and supply pressures on all other fodder types,” Dairy Australia industry analyst Isabel Dando told Guardian Australia.
“High-protein hay options such as vetch hay are expected to be in significantly short supply, after wide reports of vetch crop failures.”
Dando says some hay crops have instead been turned into silage, which requires less curing time before baling, which means farmers can bale it in the brief gaps in the weather.
“There are reports across Bega Valley, Goulburn-Murray Valley, and Gippsland that where possible, around the wet weather, silage cutting has been taking place,” Dando said.
The heavier and more labour-intensive silage increases costs for farmers and transporters, who have to contend with high fuel costs and damaged roads.
Dando said higher prices would probably flow on to consumers.
Some, like Wauchope dairy farmer Luke McLceary, are fortunate enough to be able to make some of their own feed. He is growing sorghum, which he hopes to have baled in January.
“Our normal hay supplier in the Forbes-Cowra district is really questioning whether he’ll get any hay made this year,” Cleary said.
“It’s hard to imagine what can be salvaged, and just the cleanup [costs] of some of those areas.”
Farmers who don’t have the equipment for silage- and hay-making are having to deal with a shortage of contractors. Even with Cleary’s level of self-sufficiency, feed from elsewhere is still needed.
“We’ll just have to grow what we can here, and hopefully buy some hay, even if it’s gotta come from further away, like South Australia,” he said.
“The shortages will definitely have a negative impact on cashflow. Everyone’s copping the fuel rise and the talk of power doubling in the next 18 months.”
Cleary, who supplies milk for a major supermarket’s own brand, said the “stranglehold” supermarkets have on milk prices added to the pressure.
Supermarkets use milk as a loss leader. “That’s not reflecting the true worth of the product when water’s dearer than milk,” Cleary said.
Some regions are faring better than others when it comes to feed. The Tamworth region was relatively unaffected by floods, but has benefited from the rain.
Lasche Perrett, of Furney’s Stockfeeds in Tamworth, said local hay growers have been doing well but other inputs for their feed, which is mixed at Dubbo, are harder to get.
“It’s all weather-dependent,” Perrett said. “We’ve managed to get some lucerne in. I believe a few of the farmers have started to cut.
“We’ve had a good, dry week. But the demand’s up, the price is up, and that’s all reflected in the current fuel fluctuations.”
Some speciality products used in stockfeed are harder to get, especially those grown in different regions. One such product in short supply is grey stripe sunflowers, which is added to some stockfeeds.
“They grow a lot out at Gunnedah – it’s for bird seed and things like that – but they haven’t got any and we don’t have a date for when we can get any,” Perrett said.
