Gairdner community show strength and support one another through consecutive dry seasons

Watching their sheep leave on a road train bound for the Eastern States stirs up mixed emotions for Gairdner farming couple Craig and Naomi Hall. On one hand they are sad to see them go. On the other, it relieves some of the pressure the lack of rainfall has placed on their mixed farming operation, with fewer hungry mouths to feed. The past three years have been a tough slog for the farming families of Gairdner, which was declared water deficient in June after the community dam ran dry for the first time in history. The tight-knit community has since had some relief, with a “magnificent” August storm dumping up to 100mm in some areas, filling dams and freshening crops. Before the storm, the Halls, who have two children Jamon, 4, and Quinn, 2, and farm with Craig’s parents Glen and Erryn, were one of many families forced to cart water, increase confinement feeding and buy in feed to see their stock through. “My father-in-law’s nearly 70 and he was carting water, and when he wasn’t carting water he was feeding hay and had a sheep feeder hooked on.” Their feed bill hit six figures, carting in three road trains of hay, one road train of barley and a road train and a half of pellets — coupled with 300 tonne of feed on hand from last harvest — totalling about $300,000. Theirs is also one of many farms selling off stock while prices are high, with their Merino flock sitting at about 1800 — down from 2500 in June. Another road train was scheduled to leave in the coming weeks and Mrs Hall said they would reassess restocking next year, depending on rainfall. Grain farmer Alex Jones, who seeded 575ha of wheat, 570ha of canola, 450ha of lupins and 240ha of barley this year with his wife Marni, son Arran and daughter Brianna, said yields had taken a blow with the dry conditions. Rainfall has not come remotely close to the property’s 437mm average in the past three years, with totals failing to reach even 300mm. In 2018, he had one of his poorest canola yields in almost 30 years. The conditions have prompted farmers to research and test different practices to increase their resilience when rainfall gets low. “We have been continuous cropping for many years and have been using disc seeders to keep the stubble anchored in the soil so we are well aware of moisture retention,” Mr Jones said. “Now we’re learning about soil wetters and on-furrow seeding — anything to get the crop out of the ground and help it survive. We’re looking at deep ripping and claying trials to see what will be applicable to our situation.” For the Halls, it has highlighted how far farming has come. “Going through with no-till practices has made a massive improvement in moisture retention and holding moisture up rather than it running off and ploughing it back and back in the old days — it stops it blowing away.” Dozers had also been whirring as farmers enlarge dams and improve catchments to make the most of any future rainfall. While times have been tough, Mr Jones and the Halls credited the locals for their resilience, support and community spirit. They recently banded together for the Blue Tree Project (pictured).