Dairy cows are leaving the area by the thousands and taking with them the livelihood of the regions’ dairy farmers.
And the domino effect on local business and communities is likely to be catastrophic.
Dairy farmers have reached the end of the line and are being forced into selling entire herds or significantly reducing stock numbers just to get by.
After years of battling through the millennium drought, global financial crisis, a milk price drop, poor pricing, expensive inputs and the damaging effects of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, many farmers have simply run out of money.
Or their financiers are refusing to extend their debt anymore.
Input costs have doubled this season and the unsustainable and high cost of temporary water at prices in excess of $500 per megalitre has meant farmers can no longer afford to grow fodder for their dairy herds.
Stock agent Charles L King and Co Cohuna has seen 2000 dairy cows go through their books in one week alone.
Greenham’s abattoir has been processing consistently high numbers of cattle since spring last year and estimate cull numbers are up by 30 per cent.
There used to be 62 dairy farms stretching from Cohuna to Gunbower, now there are just 17 and Nathan McGann is one of the 17.
He made the tough decision to sell his entire milking herd in February.
He still has his young stock but if it continues to stay dry they will probably go too.
He will no longer be a dairy farmer and the income he generated and spent in the community is lost.
Southern Riverina irrigators have had zero allocation this year.
It was the final straw that prompted Moama irrigator Peter McCallum to sell his rice farm.
He is now contemplating his future in irrigation and is gravely concerned for the once rich and productive farming land that is turning to dust around him.
■See Country News inserted into the Riverine Herald on Wednesday for more stories on this unfolding crisis.
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