Article Summary: Navigating drought is a critical challenge for beef, cattle, dairy, and sheep farmers. Effective drought management involves planning for water, feed, and financial constraints while making tough decisions to minimise losses. Early actions like selling stock, adjusting feed strategies, and considering agistment help manage resources and sustain operations. Modern agtech tools, such as Pasture.io’s Pio app, also support farmers by tracking pasture conditions and resource use, offering valuable insights to reduce costs and optimise grazing. While drought brings inevitable hardships, proactive strategies and agtech solutions can build resilience, helping farms survive—and even thrive—in dry times.
As a forward-thinking farmer, profitability and sustainability are always top of mind—even in the toughest conditions. Drought poses a serious challenge, with fodder prices soaring, beef prices dipping, and animal health risks rising. To get through these trying times, you need to make strategic, sometimes tough, choices to protect your operation’s viability.
Let’s explore key drought management strategies to help your farm weather the dry spells.
Understanding Drought: A Guide
Identifying Drought Stages
Classifying the stage of drought you’re experiencing helps shape the most effective actions to take. Here’s a breakdown:
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Normal Conditions: Sufficient ground cover and soil moisture; production runs smoothly.
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Stressed Conditions: Slight heat stress, reduced ground cover, lower soil moisture.
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Progressing Drought: More pronounced effects on animals, minimal ground cover, low soil moisture.
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Drought Conditions: Widespread animal impact, very low ground cover, depleted soil moisture.
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Intense Drought: Persistent dry conditions, severely impacted livestock, prolonged rain scarcity.
Identifying your drought stage provides a foundation for the most impactful and sustainable action plans.
Developing a Drought Management Plan
A well-thought-out drought management plan is essential to keeping your farm running through prolonged dry conditions. An honest assessment of the resources you need—fodder, water, cash, or other essentials—ensures you’re prepared. Here are critical components of a strong plan:
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Set Realistic Projections: Understand your immediate needs and review them regularly.
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Anticipate Constraints: Identify your biggest constraint, whether it’s water, fodder, or funds, and focus on it early.
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Adjust as Conditions Shift: Consistently monitor your plan, update it as needed, and respond decisively based on what’s happening on the ground.
Proactive planning can help reduce the risk of major losses and allow you to prioritise essentials in a cost-effective manner.
Identifying & Addressing Your Biggest Constraints
In a drought, limitations are inevitable. Identifying your primary constraints early on—whether it’s water, fodder, supplements, or cash flow—helps you make preemptive moves. For instance:
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If fodder is limited, buy as early as possible to avoid skyrocketing prices as the drought worsens.
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If cash flow is tight, seek support through government aid, financing options, or consider scaling back operations temporarily to ensure sustainability.
Planning for these constraints can position you to make more agile, informed decisions as circumstances evolve.
Breaking Even is a Win During Drought
In times of drought, profitability may be elusive, but breaking even is a significant victory. Use the following steps to create a realistic budget:
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Outline All Expenses: Map your costs in a detailed spreadsheet to find areas for potential savings.
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Prioritise Animal Welfare & Sustainability: Reduce non-essential expenses carefully, considering the long-term impacts on your animals, employees, and overall farm health.
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Build a Buffer: Adding a 10% buffer to your expenses can give you a safety net for unexpected costs.
If a break-even plan isn’t achievable, it’s unlikely profitability will materialise without unexpected change. Sticking to a realistic, data-driven break-even goal is essential for sustainability.
Six Strategies to Avoid Major Losses During a Drought
1. Selling Stock
Early sales can be strategic—prices and animal health typically hold up better early in the drought. Selling livestock early frees up cash flow and reduces ongoing feeding and water costs. Keep your most resilient animals to rebuild quickly post-drought.
2. Production Feeding
If you have high-quality animals and expect a market recovery, production feeding can maintain productivity. While this option involves higher risk due to increased feed costs, it can yield profitable outcomes if conditions improve sooner than anticipated.
3. Maintenance Feeding
Maintenance feeding—offering just enough to maintain animals’ body weight—is a balanced approach. It’s costlier over extended droughts but can be viable if you have reserves of hay, silage, or other feed. This method is effective for farmers who have additional income streams or a sustainable supply of fodder.
4. Agistment
Sending livestock to another property for care—called agistment—can reduce immediate feed and water demands while keeping ownership intact. Make sure to formalise the agreement in writing, including details like agistment costs, feed supplements, and timelines. Also, remember to register livestock movement with the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) to ensure compliance.
5. Trading Livestock
Drought can create unique market fluctuations, opening opportunities to buy or sell livestock advantageously. Stay attuned to market prices and consider trading selectively as part of your strategy.
6. Humane Destruction
While never easy, humane destruction may become necessary if prices hit unsustainable lows or animals are too unwell for transport. Properly executed, this option can prevent unnecessary suffering, reduce operating costs, and ensure compliance with animal welfare laws. Always prioritise skilled handling in these cases.
Monitoring & Adjusting Your Plan
No plan can account for every variable, so flexibility and vigilance are key. Stay informed by tapping into your network, tracking market data, and reassessing your plan frequently. When new challenges emerge, adjust accordingly to minimise losses.
The Role of AgTech in Drought Management
Tools like Pasture.io’s Pio app support farmers with satellite imaging, pasture monitoring, and efficient task management to help navigate dry spells with confidence. Here’s how we’re making a difference:
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Enhanced Grazing Management: Track pasture conditions to optimise grazing schedules and reduce feed costs.
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Remote Monitoring: Keep tabs on soil moisture and animal conditions from anywhere, allowing quicker adjustments to feeding or agistment.
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Streamlined Operations: Track resource use, monitor budgets, and keep records efficiently to stay focused on priorities.
As tools continue to evolve, we’re able to offer powerful ways to mitigate drought’s effects, helping farmers maintain resilience and sustainability.
Drought remains one of the toughest challenges in agriculture, but with a proactive, flexible approach and using agritech tools, you can navigate the dry times. Taking early, informed actions to cut costs, preserve your healthiest animals, and protect your finances will position you well for the future.
Drought won’t last forever, but your farm’s resilience will.
If drought is a key concern for your farm, get in touch with our team today to see how Pio can help you.
Until we meet again, Happy Planning!
- The Dedicated Team of Pasture.io, 2024-10-08