{"id":482745,"date":"2026-02-16T02:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T02:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/482745\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T02:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T02:03:11","slug":"dams-and-rivers-run-dry-forcing-victorian-farmers-to-make-tough-decisions-about-their-livestock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/482745\/","title":{"rendered":"Dams and rivers run dry, forcing Victorian farmers to make tough decisions about their livestock"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victorian livestock producers are facing critical water shortages, forcing them to cart water, find agistment or sell stock.<\/p>\n

It is a case of deja vu for many farmers, including those in south-west Victoria who are entering their third consecutive dry year.<\/p>\n

And with a poor long-term rainfall outlook, many are concerned about when they will see light at the end of the tunnel.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Bill Lambert’s hills are parched, with no rain falling to deliver the run-off he desperately needs.\u00a0 (ABC Rural: Angus Verley)<\/p>\n

River and dams almost dry<\/p>\n

Bill Lambert is a stud Hereford producer at Paschendale, south-west of Coleraine.<\/p>\n

He had not recorded a single millimetre of rain for the year until 4 millimetres fell last week, but that is not enough.<\/p>\n

Part of his farm fronts the Wannon River, usually a highly reliable water source.<\/p>\n

But even it is down to a trickle, less than a metre wide and 10 centimetres deep.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had this country for more than 50 years and the river only stopped running once, in the 1970s, and this is the lowest it’s been since then,” he said.\"Man<\/p>\n

Bill Lambert’s first rain of the year was 4 millimetres recorded last week. (ABC Rural: Angus Verley)<\/p>\n

“We’re going to be forced to look for agistment or sell stock. We just won’t be able to keep them here.”<\/p>\n

Mr Lambert has already cut his cow numbers to 230, and expects to have to cull further as he watches his dam levels fall quickly.<\/p>\n

“It’s starting to get desperate; there are a lot of people in a lot of trouble with water supplies,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Cow<\/p>\n

Bill Lambert’s Hereford cows are quickly running out of water. (ABC Rural: Angus Verley)<\/p>\n

While some in the district have bought trucks and water tankers, Mr Lambert said he did not feel that was feasible for him.<\/p>\n

“It’d be a full-time job, you’d get nothing else done, so I don’t see it as an option,” he said.<\/p>\n

Water bacteria problems<\/p>\n

Even for those who do have some water left in their dams, the quality might be too low for livestock.<\/p>\n

South-west Victorian livestock vet Jane Gaussen said high levels of bacteria were being detected in some water sources.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got stock walking into dams and defecating in them,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Bacteria load management is a real challenge and the temperature is rising too, so we can run into issues with algal blooms and more proliferation of bacteria, because bacteria loves a warm environment.<\/p>\n

“Animals will try to go for good quality water, but if they don’t have options, they obviously will drink poor quality water in order to survive.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Jane Gaussen says low dams can create animal health issues. (ABC Rural: Angus Verley)<\/p>\n

Dr Gaussen urged farmers to have water tested if they had any concerns.<\/p>\n

“I really encourage doing testing, and sometimes if a water source isn’t suitable, we’ve got options in terms of treatment,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Otherwise, we need to make decisions around whether we can use that particular dam at all.”<\/p>\n

Dr Gaussen said one positive was that farmers were more prepared for the dry times this season.<\/p>\n

“Remembering the issues we had last year, people are forward-planning a lot more this year,” she said.<\/p>\n

Pipelines needed<\/p>\n

As dams run dry, there are renewed calls for new infrastructure to bring piped water to areas traditionally reliant on rainfall.<\/p>\n

Scott Young is president of the Victorian Farmers Federation livestock group and a farmer at Ballan, another area experiencing water shortages.<\/p>\n

“We need more pipelines for water reliability,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Scott Young says more investment is needed in pipelines to improve water security.\u00a0 (ABC Rural: Angus Verley)<\/p>\n

Mr Young said while proposed pipelines would not help in the current dry times, farmers and politicians needed to plan for the future.<\/p>\n

“We know there will be another drought around the corner,” he said.<\/p>\n

Underground water is an alternative being explored by some farmers, including Mr Young, but he said that too threw up challenges.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got my name down to have a bore dug, but you can’t do any infrastructure until you know where that bore will be and whether they’ll hit water at all,” he said.<\/p>\n

Being positive in grim times<\/p>\n

Despite the grim realities back at Paschendale, Mr Lambert is trying to stay positive.<\/p>\n

“We are optimists, and we know it will rain,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Stock<\/p>\n

Bill Lambert still has some dams holding water, but they are running low. (ABC Rural: Angus Verley)<\/p>\n

“We just need a bloody big thunderstorm to get us out of a bit of trouble.”<\/p>\n

He reflected on the plight of those in natural disaster zones, and said he did not consider himself hard done by.<\/p>\n

“When you think about the people in northern Queensland going through floods, and the people in Victoria who’ve been burnt out, they’re a lot worse off,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s just Mother Nature in charge; we don’t have to go to the pokies, we gamble just getting out of bed in the morning.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victorian livestock producers are facing critical water shortages, forcing them to cart water, find agistment or sell stock.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[6634,64,63,13331,4358,75,13330,15158,128,25656,34454,11814],"class_list":{"0":"post-482745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-agriculture","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-cattle","12":"tag-drought","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-farming","15":"tag-livestock","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-sheep","18":"tag-victorian-farmers-federation","19":"tag-water"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}