Farmer Andrew Bail talks to Robyn Ballinger about how are farmers are adapting to climate change in northern Victoria.

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 3: Andrew Bail

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

ROBYN BALLINGER: So you think this is just part of the dry...

ANDREW BAIL: Part of a cycle.

ROBYN: Yep.

ANDREW;Like, in the '60s and '70s, we had a really wet time. And, you know, and then it started to dry out. And if you look back over 100-odd years, which is only a blip in the whole set-up, you know, not... There's been different peri... And I honestly think there's trends - where it trends weather and then there's times where it trends drier. But we've still got to change to... it doesn't matter whether it gets wet or not, we're not going to get the water like we used to, you know, like the irrigation areas aren't because governments and big business got more money than we'll ever have and they'll make sure it goes where they want it to go.

ROBYN: And is the continuing dry impacting here on people in the way that they're farming the land or...?

ANDREW: I think when it first sort of hit us in 2002 - the first really bad dry year - which I think was already going for 18 months before that, I think we've learnt to adapt to it. And I think we've learnt to... You know, in those days, we would have expected to run more stock than what we're running, but we're happy enough doing what we're doing.

ROBYN: And that's partly because...

ANDREW: And we've adjusted.

ROBYN: Yeah, OK.

ANDREW: When we went into that '02 year, we had more cattle here and, I'll be honest, and a lot of people got caught out with their cattle. And... we were... Looking back, we would be ashamed to see our cattle like... again.

ROBYN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

ANDREW: It was that way and a lot of farmers would've done it, we kept our cattle away from the road, basically for six months, and fed and did what we could. But it was a survival time. That was the problem. And we learnt a lot out of that. And that's why the last few years, our stock, we were having a bit of trouble 12 months ago, and we put them out on agistment and it took all the money from the calves to keep the cattle right. And we thought, 'Well, that's easier than worrying about 'em and feeding 'em hay and still not having cattle in good condition.'

ROBYN: Sure.

ANDREW: Yeah, so we have learnt in that way. And I think 99% of farmers will have.