Mark Jacobs from Bushby Dreeite South says that, compared to previous droughts, "it's as bad as anything [he's] seen."
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00:00Since 1944, there's only been three years where we haven't had a break by this time.
00:05And looking even further back than that, it's pretty much unprecedented until you go back to the 1880s.
00:12So what people are putting up with is pretty tough conditions.
00:16And what are you doing at the moment to deal with those dry conditions in terms of feeding livestock?
00:21Well, it's pretty much what we've done in the past, and that is all the stock were put in containment areas very early.
00:28They've been fed a high energy fibre diet.
00:33And so condition score has been the major way that we've kept track of how our years are going.
00:40And that's very regular.
00:42We're feeding out 20 rolls of hay every second day.
00:47And we feed out pellets every other second day.
00:53We feed five kilos per cow.
00:57We just take it out in bulk of bags and cart it out in buckets and spread it out for them.
01:03And hopefully that'll get them through.
01:05And hopefully still it'll keep them cycling because the bulls are out there ready to join them.
01:11And Mark, how does it compare to previous droughts?
01:13It's as bad as anything I've seen.
01:16Because we had late rain.
01:18We never had much spring growth.
01:20We then had late rain.
01:22And that sort of broke up anything we had.
01:24We got a green shoot and then everything's gone.
01:27We've been feeding since March, I think.
01:31We started feeding hay.
01:32We were short running out of feed then.
01:34And what are you costing or what's it costing to feed out at the moment?
01:38Probably about $7,000 a week.
01:41And is that in pellets and hay?
01:43Pellets and hay, yes.