THIS time last year South East Queensland endured some of the wettest weather it’d had in years now it is heading in the opposite direction with an El Nino weather pattern declared by meteorologists.
An El Nino means hot and dry with slim chance of rain.
In its wake are drought and a landscape only the hardiest cover crops can survive without irrigation.
Most farmers knew an El Nino was coming, who better to understand this kind of thing than those who spend their lives outside.
Unfortunately, farmers and graziers are also the ones who suffer because crops and cattle need water, they need rain.
Trevor Dieckmann is a Kalbar hay producer who primarily grows lucerne and Rhodes grass.
Last year The Fassifern Guardian interviewed Mr Dieckmann about how significant rainfall, overseas conflict and the rising price of diesel were affecting his haymaking business.
Almost a year later we touch base again, this time the subject is the El Nino not La Nina.
It’s no wonder Mr Dieckmann is unphased, yes it’s hot and dry but he said he’s seen it all before and gone through worse.                                                                      “You have really just got to work with what you’ve got, the trouble with farming now is that greed has taken over,” he said.
“Instead of somebody wanting to have a 100 cows, they’ve got to have 200 and they don’t prepare for those bad times.
“It is the same with the crop farmers, they are all whinging about low prices but if they weren’t so greedy and grew so much, they wouldn’t have an oversupply and have that problem.
“When it comes to the weather, nothing much has changed ... it is just a natural thing.
“You get wet years, you get dry years and you just have to prepare and make sure you’ve got a bit of cash behind you.
“Don’t load yourself up with that much debt that you can’t make ends meet should the weather change.”
Mr Dieckmann has spent his life working the land, he said his perspective is garnered from decades experience working through all sorts of weather patterns.
“Nothing is different this week to last week, just because an El Nino has been declared doesn’t mean the sky is falling down,” he said.
“We knew it was coming, we prepared for it.”
Farmers for Climate Action chair Brett Hall said many farmers were concerned about the possibility of warmer, drier conditions and that an El Nino would be made more extreme by climate change.
“Although some farmers have had reasonable conditions recently, we know things can change in a few months,” he said.
“Farmers are always looking three steps ahead to the next event but there are limits to their adaptation.
“While we adapt and mitigate on-farm, we need to know the rest of the economy is doing its bit to reduce emissions and tackle climate change, which is causing more frequent and severe weather events.”