Two years of sustained low rainfall has left Jeffcott grain farmer Mark Donnellon “completely dependent” on a good season.
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“If this year doesn't come off we’re in real trouble,” he said.
“It’s having a major financial impost on us, there’s no doubt about that.”
Mr Donnellon is one of many farmers in central Victoria’s dry north-west whose finances have been hit hard by the drought, with newly released figures showing more families in the Buloke Shire are receiving Centrelink’s Farm Household Allowance than anywhere else in Victoria.
The figures, released to the Bendigo Advertiser by the federal Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, reveal 135 families in the Buloke Shire are receiving the allowance, almost double that of the next closest municipality.
Mr Donnellon said his farm, halfway between Donald and Charlton, had only only reaped a 10 percent return during the past two seasons, well below that needed to turn a profit.
There’s been some pretty sleepless nights.
- Mark Donnellon
“Sixty-five per cent of our average yield is our cost of production, and last year we got 10 per cent of our average yield, so we’re 55 per cent behind,” he said.
“With grain growing and cropping, all your costs are up front, we spent most of our money in the first three or four months putting crops in.”
Mr Donnellon said he had now nearly exhausted his borrowing limit with his bank, with the latest lifeline not coming a moment too soon.
“Probably from the middle of January right through to probably the last fortnight, there’s been some pretty sleepless nights,” he said.
“In the last fortnight we got the word from the bank saying they’d give us the money to get through this year.”
After that, Mr Donnellon is putting his faith in a break in the weather for his business to remain viable.
“All the indicators are saying it’s going to be a reasonable sort of winter and spring so I'm hanging my hat on that,” he said.
“We’re keeping our costs as low as we possibly can without effecting our bottom line.”