A LOCAL grain and livestock producer from the Riverland is facing one of the toughest seasons of his farming career, as persistent drought and unprecedented wind conditions continue to wreak havoc on his property.

Tim Paschke, who farms across approximately 14,000 acres, has spoken about the emotional, financial and environmental toll the extreme conditions have taken. 

Despite years of preparation, adaptive management, and best-practice farming, Mr Paschke says the current drought has pushed his operation, and his community, to the brink of closing down.

“We sewed up to 14,000 acres before the rain,” he said. 

“But accompanied with the lack of rainfall last year and the previous year before that, our stubble cover has obviously diminished.”

This lack of ground cover has left paddocks exposed to severe wind erosion, causing significant soil movement and reducing the already strained productivity of his land.

“Our soils are light and fragile, and the extreme wind is just grabbing the sand and blowing it through fences, pulverising any bit of stubble cover we had remaining.”

Even with low-disturbance sowing techniques and careful stubble management, the conditions have overwhelmed traditional safeguards.

Livestock management under pressure

While the cropping outlook remains grim, Mr Paschke is unsure whether he will harvest a single grain this year and is concerned about his livestock operation, which has also been heavily impacted.

“We’ve been feeding all our sheep since March and we’ve got all our lambs enclosed in feedlots,” Mr Paschke said.

“In July, you would have thought we’d have some green feed, but we haven’t, so we’ve had to hand-feed them for a while now, but we are uncertain about what is coming.

“If it doesn’t rain within eight weeks, I may be forced to sell my sheep.

“I can’t afford to buy feed for another 12 months. That’s not good for my mental health, and it’s not good for my bank balance.

“There are some paddocks we can’t run stock on now probably for eighteen months.”

Strategies and sustainability

Despite the circumstances, Mr Paschke remains pragmatic about his approach, drawing from lessons learned in previous seasons.

“Looking after our stock is important and confinement feeding and early management of taking them off paddocks and feed-lotting the lambs — that’s been a really good way to keep them healthy,” Mr Paschke said.

However, Mr Paschke said  that on the cropping front, all best-practice strategies have been exhausted.

“We implement all those things every year, rotations, stubble cover, weed control, but unless it rains, they don’t mean a lot.

“I try to remain flexible with the seeding program, removing canola, lentils and peas, which can be expensive to maintain without rain.

“We’ve still got bins of lupins and vetch, and we are making decisions based around that. We sowed paddocks to try to get cover, and that turned out to be the worst thing we could have done.”

Government support and gaps

When it comes to drought assistance, Paschke acknowledges the limited support he’s received so far, namely infrastructure grants, but said these often favour farmers who already have funds available.

“The problem is you’ve actually got to have money to get the money,” Mr Paschke said.

Mr Paschke believes earlier and more accessible programs, like those rolled out during the 2000s drought, could make a meaningful difference.

“Zero interest loans helped us back in the 2000s... farming is a very expensive business. We understand the risk, but this is unprecedented,” Mr Paschke said.

“Floods take everything overnight, but droughts take it over time. At the end, we’re in the same boat, no feed, no income.”

Mr Paschke is also concerned about the broader community impact.

“It’s not just farmers that suffer. Mechanics, tyre shops, pubs, every business in our local town is connected to agriculture,” Mr Paschke said.

“ I recall a past grant scheme where local spending was encouraged through store credits.

“You’d get $1500 at the butcher or grocery store. That helped the whole community, not just the farmer.”

Mental health and workforce challenges

Another consequence of the slow response to the drought is a lack of mental health services.

“The State Government put quite a lot of money into mental health, but it needed to happen three years ago. The wait time can be up to two or three months for any assistance,” Mr Paschke said. 

“Guys who are looking for help are not getting it when they need it, and they might need help next week, not in two months.”

Looking forward: resilience and recovery

Despite the hardships, Mr Paschke is still planning for recovery.

“In terms of cropping, we’re in recovery mode now and we need to be careful with how we treat those paddocks next year,” Mr Paschke said.

“On the sheep side, we’ve got the best setup, but hand-feeding since March takes its toll. We’ve done what we can, and even brought in almond shell to stretch the hay.”

Even with the best planning, he admits the weather has the final say.

“Someone asked why we weren’t ready for drought;” Mr Paschke said.

“The truth is, we were. We bought a heap of straw in 2022, but we had a mice plague, so it’s always something.”

Call for regionalised drought response

Mr Paschke believes future drought policy should be more targeted.

“In the 2008 drought, council regions were put into drought declarations,” Mr Paschke said

“That allowed for earlier funding, and I wonder if we need to look at that again.

“We are not asking for handouts, but options like low-interest loans could help us buy the inputs for the next crop. 

“That could make the difference between being here in two years or not.”

A farmer’s reality
The Paschke family, like many in the Riverland, are weathering another difficult season. But Mr Paschke is clear-eyed about the scale of the challenge.

“This is our third year of low income, and at the moment, it could be eighteen months before I see a harvest,” Mr Paschke said.

“We know the risks, but the speed of the response, whether it’s mental health, infrastructure support, or financial aid, has to improve, because once the rain does come, we’ll still be here, rebuilding.”

In Holder, as in many parts of South Australia, the battle with drought continues — not only in the soil, but in the decisions, resilience, and hope of farmers like Tim Paschke.