{"id":206507,"date":"2025-10-12T02:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T02:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/206507\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T02:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T02:40:10","slug":"spring-rains-sow-seeds-of-hope-among-limestone-coast-farmers-after-months-of-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/206507\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring rains sow seeds of hope among Limestone Coast farmers after months of drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking at Abby Miller’s fat, new season lambs standing amid belly-high, neon-green pasture today, it is hard to believe the same paddock was a brown, barren dust plain just a few months ago.<\/p>\n

For the past two years, the Naracoorte farmer and accountant has been battling drought and dramatically low livestock commodity price slumps, which saw sheep make as little as $2 per head at saleyards.<\/p>\n

Like many farmers throughout South Australia, those in the south-east where Mrs Miller farms, have been in a desperate position.<\/p>\n

At the height of her community’s call for action, she penned a letter to SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, expressing the burden of hardship being borne by farmers \u2014 locally, around the state and across the border into western Victoria.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Young lambs on a drought-affected paddock at Richie and Abby Miller’s farm near Naracoorte. (Supplied: Rosemary Miller)<\/p>\n

\"grown<\/p>\n

Lambs graze on the same paddock at Richie and Abby Miller’s farm near Naracoorte. (Supplied: Rosemary Miller)<\/p>\n

Mrs Miller’s words would underpin expanded, emergency drought support for South Australian farmers.<\/p>\n

Today, the Miller farm \u2014 and many others in the region \u2014 paint a more positive picture.<\/p>\n

The lambs born on bare, brown paddocks just a few months ago are now grazing on lush, fresh feed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crops sown with hopes and prayers now stand tall in swathes of yellow and green.<\/p>\n

“It’s good to walk down the main street or take kids to local sport and see people smiling again,” Mrs Miller said.<\/p>\n

“I think the South East is feeling optimistic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“After these early spring rains, people can now say ‘let’s keep going’ which is quite a turnaround, coming off the back of two very tough years.”<\/p>\n

Tough times build tough people<\/p>\n

While some South Australian regions remain on a knife-edge<\/a>, Mrs Miller said some farmers on the Limestone Coast had the opportunity to claw back financial losses, with some districts recording up to 2 inches of rain in the first week of October.<\/p>\n

“To know we can feed our lambs and grow our crops to their full potential \u2014 it’s positive and so many farmers here are smiling and saying there’s opportunity there,” she said.<\/p>\n

The outlook in the Upper South East is also much improved.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Richie Miller and his son feed sheep during the 2024-25 drought in Naracoorte, SA.\u00a0 (Supplied: Abby Miller)<\/p>\n

Michael Hunt farms at Cannawigara near Bordertown, where the season also got off to a memorably difficult start.<\/p>\n

“We started planting some barley and some canola and then we stopped because it was dead, dry, dusty and depressing,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We had a team meeting and decided to just keep going. We were full of self-doubt \u2026 but eventually it rained.”<\/p>\n

\"Sheep<\/p>\n

A grazing property in the Penola district has been revived with recent rains. (ABC South East SA: Liz Rymill)<\/p>\n

That rain helped improve the season, with Mr Hunt now on track to have an average harvest year.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen it turn around like that,” Mr Hunt said.Conditions ‘much better’<\/p>\n

Lower South East farmer Trevor Rayson had around 40 millimetres of rain on his property in Hatherleigh, 15 kilometres north-west of Millicent, in the first week of October.<\/p>\n

With the improvement of conditions, Mr Rayson said he was on track for an average harvest year, much better than he expected three months ago.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Trevor Rayson says another big rain would be needed in the next month to help crops finish successfully. (ABC South East SA: Elsie Adamo)<\/p>\n

“We’re so much better off than we were \u2026 from where we’ve come from, that’s really good,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t rain grass, it rains potential.”<\/p>\n

While the crops on his farm are looking healthy, Mr Rayson doesn’t need to travel far for the outlook to change.<\/p>\n

“Even just 10 or 15 kilometres down the road and the crops don’t look as bright,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We might just be in a very lucky patch.”<\/p>\n

Those patchy results are a common occurrence across the South East according to senior agronomist with Delta Ag in Keith, Scott Hutchings.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Scott Hutchings says there has been enough rain for most pastures to get some decent yields for livestock.\u00a0 (ABC South East SA: Elsie Adamo)<\/p>\n

“There is some unevenness in some of the cropping and pasture and that can be who’s had individual rainfall events,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Hutchings is expecting crops and pastures south of Keith to have average to slightly above average yields this season, but for those farmers further north it is a different story.<\/p>\n

“In my area, my variation from north to south is the most I’ve seen for a long, long time just because of lower rainfall as we move north,” he said.<\/p>\n

Lessons remain after rains arrive<\/p>\n

Farmers are often not big on celebrating the wins publicly, aware others could be in much tougher situations, but Mr Hunt wanted to provide a bit of hope.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Canola flowers have brightened up the South East in the last month.\u00a0 (ABC South East SA: Elsie Adamo)<\/p>\n

“I’m just aware of all of those that are having a tough year, keep the chin up,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I was feeling very low in May, but once things started turning around you realise that it’s not forever.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes you’ve got to be thankful for what you’ve got.”<\/p>\n

Mrs Miller echoes this sentiment.<\/p>\n

“I sometimes feel bad for feeling good because I know that there’s still a lot of farmers across the state who don’t know what happens next,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Farming is a small community \u2014 you’re in it together, and I think reaching out to friends in regions where it’s tough is still very important.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Even just a phone call or a message over social media matters.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Looking at Abby Miller’s fat, new season lambs standing amid belly-high, neon-green pasture today, it is hard to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[3878,49,48,6091,100953,100954,100952,295,100950,100956,100955,66,100949,100951],"class_list":["post-206507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-agriculture","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-drought","tag-drought-recovery-south-australia","tag-drought-sa-2025","tag-drought-south-australia","tag-environment","tag-farmers-south-australia","tag-how-much-rain-did-farmers-get-in-october-2025","tag-is-the-drought-over","tag-science","tag-spring-rain-2025","tag-spring-rainfall-south-australia-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}