Feed Central managing director Tim Ford says farmers are doing it tough at both ends of the country and prices are climbing — cereal hay is pushing $400/tonne and lucerne is up to $500/tonne.
“There is tension in the marketplace and real anxiety about supply,” Mr Ford said.
“Southern regions like to have their autumn break by Anzac Day but that has passed and there has been no rain of significance through vast areas of South Australia and Victoria since then, which means there are zero pastures.
“In historical terms, we would never ship hay from Queensland south but the vast majority of South Australia and Victoria is totally exhausted of hay supply. You've got basically every shed empty.
“Hay in southern Queensland is going to be sold down fairly rapidly, fairly soon.”
Farmers offered hay lifeline
LocalAg is offering a lifeline to help disaster-impacted farmers access hay.
It is gathering non-binding expressions of interest in sourcing potential hay supplies.
Mr Ford said a coordinated response was needed to assess the magnitude of the disaster and address the urgent needs of farmers.
“People can go to the webpage https://www.localag.com.au/haywanted to register their interest and let us know the quantity of hay they need,” he said.
“Having that data will allow us to have discussions with government around biosecurity protocols, particularly out of Western Australia, and with providers to start coordinating a large-scale freight and logistics plan.”
Mr Ford stressed that farmers completing the form were not signing a binding contract but simply lodging an expression of interest.
He said LocalAg was working on interstate supply options.
“We realise that farmers are doing it tough from both drought and flood and getting data about their needs will allow us to help them.
“We are looking to Western Australia and Queensland for supply options but need to know what is needed so we can make a more complete submission to government and can work through the supply logistics.
“At the moment it’s happening in an ad-hoc way so we need an understanding of the volume required and we may be able to help with a more coordinated approach to address the problem.”
Mr Ford said farmers expressing interest would later have the opportunity to enter a contract once availability was confirmed.
More details can be found at: https://www.localag.com.au/haywanted
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