Farmers on the front line of climate change

Not long after leaving school, I followed the well-trodden path of many farm girls and boys; packing my bags and joining a shearing team. Through 40-plus degree days of skirting fleeces and grinding blades (hot tip, this is not a good way to cool down) on the edge of the pastoral country during a Western Australian summer as a 17-year-old, I had no idea the suffocating heat was rapidly becoming a defining feature of our changing climate. Fast forward more than a decade and as I write this, in Crookwell, NSW it’s 38 degrees and a local sheep farmer has come in from an early morning start – forced to muster his lambs before the inescapable heat stresses livestock, and farmers. Shaking his head as the sweat drips down, he wonders how to adjust to temperatures 14 degrees above average.

Farmers, standing at the front line.

For most urban dwellers, summer means time by the pool and flocking to the nearest shopping centre when the heat becomes too much. For Australian farmers, summer means something very different. 

Read Verity Morgan-Schmidt’s story on The Border Mail - “Farmers on the front line of climate change.”

Farming anguish as drought-hit southern Tasmania prays for rain, while north welcomes rainfall

It's a tale of two very different seasons.

Tasmanian farmer Charlie Archer has watched
the dry soil blowing away in the winds.

While Tasmania's north and north-east farming districts are experiencing almost unprecedented rainfall and lush spring pastures, in the state's south and east coast regions, it's one of the worst years for drought on record.

That has growers and graziers in affected areas very worried, with many describing the situation as "desperate" and "on a knife-edge”.

With a record dry winter, a dry frosty start to spring, little rain on the outlook and a long, hot, bushfire-prone summer forecast, farmers are struggling to grow crops and sustain livestock.

Read the ABC News story by Peta Carlyon - “Farming anguish as drought-hit southern Tasmania prays for rain, while north welcomes rainfall.”