Patches of green are few and far between in the Mallawa district, but for David and Leanne Hunt, “Corrah”, who have entered their second year of battling this drought, 100 hectares of flourishing faba beans is something to smile about.
Planted mid-May, the crop has battled minimal in-crop rain, frost and heat, and pressure from feral pests, but looks set for a promising harvest in October.
David said the crop was planted between 10 and 10.5 inches deep, but emerged well in just 10 days.
“We went down after moisture because there was nothing on the surface, she was as dry as a chip, but the moisture underneath was pretty good,” he said.
“They had to come up half way from China, so it did take them a while to dig their way up.”
In such a dry year, David said the toughness of faba beans was what prompted him to take a chance.
“Faba beans are a pretty tough plant and that's the only thing I could have planted this season,” he said.
“No other crop, other than chickpeas, will come up from that depth, so it was either chickpeas or beans.
“Beans are sown before chickpeas, and I thought well either sow now or the moisture is going to dry away even further and be beyond my limitations to get into it.”
McGregor Gourlay agronomist, Brooke Cutler, Bellata, said it had been a difficult growing season.
“The worst part of it has been, nearly every second week you could say, there's been a forecast come through of good rain and we haven't got it,” she said.
“With next to no effective in-crop rain the crop has done well, relying on the stored moisture from a long fallow.
“The best thing we did do was level the paddock with railway line after it was planted, because going down that deep we had quite a large trench and a lot of larger clods came to the top as well.
“Getting it back to a flat surface probably restricted it from cracking open and drying out.”
With a limited offering of feed across the region, David said pressure from feral pests had been one of the biggest issues for the crop.
“I haven't had any pig pressure and normally pigs give me an absolute caning, but I haven't been spared the roo pressure,” he said.
“Normally kangaroos don't eat faba beans, but starvation's a wonderful thing; it teaches animals to eat things they really shouldn't.
“They strip the leaves off to start with and the next time they come back they take it off at ground level.
“We've never worried about faba beans, now they're coming in droves because they've got nothing else.”
Despite these troubles with feral pests, David said it’s great to look across the landscape and see just a little bit of green.
“Particularly at your front gate,” he said.
“It is nice to drive out here of a morning, come out over the gate and see it's still green.
“I've had so many people pull up, and walk through the fence to have a look, wondering what it is.”
In addition to the cultivation across almost half of their property, the Hunt’s also run about 700 head of Herefords across the remainder of “Corrah” and their second property, “Ellsieville”.
David said “Ellsieville” had been completely destocked and they had been feeding cattle at “Corrah” since January.
“We're trimming down pretty hard at the moment and I think before this drought's finished we’re going to be down to about a third of what we're running now,” he said.
“That's if we can find feed for them which is my biggest issue at the moment.
“Feed is just about unobtainable and I'm probably buying feed that I can't afford, but we have no choice.”
David said making the decision to keep feeding wasn’t a decision at all.
“My family has been breeding these cattle since 1972 and we'e been the same bloodlines all the time, so it's not just a case of selling up and saying we'll buy them back when it rains,” he said.
“You've got a better part of 50 years of breeding behind them which is very hard to obtain.
“To buy the quality that we'd be running here, you'd be paying top end of the market to buy back, and I don't know where you'd even find them now.”
Like many across the eastern states of Australia, David said the monotony of the drought was taking its toll.
“Feeding cattle is all we do seven days a week,” he said.
“I've only ever seen one drought as bad as this one, but even then you could get feed.
“I've never seen a drought take the whole of New South Wales and most of the other states.”
