Dairy farmer Ray Munzel talks to Robyn Ballinger about grazing regimes on the Patho Plains.

Like other Victorian rural areas, the rural population of the Patho Plains is decreasing. When landowners move out of the district, they take a wealth of historical knowledge and experience with them.

The Patho Plains Oral History Project was developed to capture the historical knowledge of farmers and landowners to better understand the changing landscape. These interviews and photographs form part of that project.

Further Information

Patho Plains Oral History interview excerpt 13: Ray Munzel

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

ROBYN BALLINGER: Did you use the plains country in that time, over the drought?

RAY MUNZEL: We'd get hay out there. One year, we had a good year out there. I think it was 2003 we had a good year out there. We planted a couple of hundred acres of oats.

ROBYN: Oh, OK.

RAY: And we had the plains covered in bales.

ROBYN: Wow. Fantastic. And that would have kept the cows going as well.

RAY: It was a big help. Saved us buying hay.

ROBYN: Tell me how you use the plains country. So, do you use it seasonally?

RAY: We have cattle out there nearly all the time.

ROBYN: Do you? Yep.

RAY: Except for a few... It gets too cold out there sometimes through the winter...

ROBYN: Yeah.

RAY: It gets too cold out there with the wind howling across the plains. It gets that cold out there, the cows just about die.

ROBYN: Yeah. 'Cause there's no shelter.

RAY: No. We have to either take hay out every day or else bring 'em home.

ROBYN: So how many head have you got out there?

RAY: At the moment?

ROBYN: Yeah.

RAY: Oh, there's probably 70 or something like that.

ROBYN: Really, at the most, you've only got about 100 head or something out there, if you put... Yeah. OK. And basically, that helps you manage... It must have been before you had that plains country, you had them all here on the island.

RAY: Yeah, had 'em all here.

ROBYN: And you had to keep feeding them all the time. So having that extra bit of ground must have relieved that a bit.

RAY: Oh, yeah. It took a lot of pressure off.

ROBYN: Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

RAY: And allowed you to feed your milking cows and our milking cows could eat a bit better because you didn't have them other cattle eating whatever they could get.

ROBYN: Sure. Sure. Sure. So... And out there, do you have any native grasses on that country, Ray? Or is it all under...

RAY: Oh, no, there's plenty of grasses out there. There's all sorts of things out there. There's Plains-wanderers and those flowering peas and the natural root grass, they call it.

ROBYN: Yeah. Yep.

RAY: There's about 150 acres of root grass out there.

ROBYN: Really? And how do the cattle take to that?

RAY: Oh, well, they survive on it.

ROBYN: Yep.

RAY: But we've always took a bit of hay out to keep the cattle so they come to you, instead of you have to go after them.