Threats to Australian Farmers

Threats to farmers
Australian cattle farmers are care caretakers of 50 % of Australia’s land. They feed millions of people every day and the beef industry is responsible for thousands of jobs. Being a farmer in Australia is not a walk in the park. They face many threats from technology, poor markets and of course Mother Nature herself! We decided to focus on the natural disasters that farmers face.
Droughts
Australia is known for its long and hard droughts. Sometimes farmers go months without rain. Some impacts of a drought are:
. Crops need water, they will deteriorate meaning farmers can’t grow grain for their livestock. This also means that there is no crop for them to harvest and sell. If they don’t have the money from last year’s crop it makes it hard to afford to put the next year’s crop in.
. Farmers have to buy water. If they don’t have water in their dams they have to buy water. This is another cost they have to find money for.
. Crops have failed and no feed is growing in the paddocks because it is too dry. Farmers have to buy grain and because there isn’t much of it around it is expensive.
. 1864- 1866: A huge drought which affected every state in Australia except Tasmania. There was also a really bad drought from 2002-2006 where most of Australia was classified as being in drought.

Here are some photos from our teacher's farm in Western NSW in 2004





Floods are also a threat to Australian farmers. Floods occur when too much rain falls in one area. The floods that will impact on farmers are usually from long periods of rain that cause river banks to break. This sometimes causes flash flooding and if farmers don’t get enough warning to get their stock to higher ground they can drown.

Other impacts of floods include water logged crops. Too much water will drown the crops; this is not good for farmers because that is one of the main sources of their income.