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Drought scars Australia's land and farmers
02 Feb 2007 06:10:02 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Michael Perry
YASS, Australia, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Farmers battling Australia's worst drought on record are shooting cattle they can't feed, abandoning dustbowl farms to search for grass with hungry livestock and hand-feeding animals on moonscape paddocks.
The worst drought in 100 years has left farmers the length and breadth of Australia looking to the sky and praying for rain.
On the black soil plains near Walgett in the northwest of New South Wales state, diminutive May McKewon, 68, lives alone on her 6,000-acre (2,400-hectare) cattle property.
After seven years of drought, her son has left the family farm to earn some money, leaving her to run it on her own. Each day she hand-feeds her cattle, determined that her beloved Longview, owned by her family since the 1800s, will survive.
"It's just dead, it's bare ground. It seems like the desert is coming closer and closer," McKewon told Reuters as lightning crackled on the horizon but failed to deliver rain.
Australia is becoming hotter and drier as it experiences accelerated climate change, scientists say.
"It may be climate change but I just don't know," ponders McKewon, who first saw drought as a little girl playing in the dirt while her father hand-fed cattle in 1942-43.
The McKewons have tried to be good farmers and work with the harsh land they call home, leaving neutral vegetation on paddocks and not over-grazing.
Full story:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP107703.htm
02 Feb 2007 06:10:02 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Michael Perry
YASS, Australia, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Farmers battling Australia's worst drought on record are shooting cattle they can't feed, abandoning dustbowl farms to search for grass with hungry livestock and hand-feeding animals on moonscape paddocks.
The worst drought in 100 years has left farmers the length and breadth of Australia looking to the sky and praying for rain.
On the black soil plains near Walgett in the northwest of New South Wales state, diminutive May McKewon, 68, lives alone on her 6,000-acre (2,400-hectare) cattle property.
After seven years of drought, her son has left the family farm to earn some money, leaving her to run it on her own. Each day she hand-feeds her cattle, determined that her beloved Longview, owned by her family since the 1800s, will survive.
"It's just dead, it's bare ground. It seems like the desert is coming closer and closer," McKewon told Reuters as lightning crackled on the horizon but failed to deliver rain.
Australia is becoming hotter and drier as it experiences accelerated climate change, scientists say.
"It may be climate change but I just don't know," ponders McKewon, who first saw drought as a little girl playing in the dirt while her father hand-fed cattle in 1942-43.
The McKewons have tried to be good farmers and work with the harsh land they call home, leaving neutral vegetation on paddocks and not over-grazing.
Full story:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP107703.htm
