Dealing with the new boogie man

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the farm of Gary Johnston.  He grows lucerne for fodder, grazing and garden mulch products in the Jemalong irrigation district and was recently named NSW Farmers of the year by the Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, and NSW Farmers' Association President, Jock Laurie.

Ten years ago the land he now farms had salt scalding and there was a push to close the irrigation channel that supplies his farm "Merriment" and many other mixed irrigation farms near Forbes.

This was part of an overall push to close down irrigation in the region with doomsayers then playing up the threat of rising ground water and salinity.

With improved irrigation and land management techniques, not to mention the drought, groundwater levels have dropped significantly and the region now claims to be one of the richest agriculturally in NSW.

Salinity is no-longer considered a threat -- the new boogie man is global warming and drought.

The rainfall record for the Murray Darling Basin shows that there have been periods of as low rainfall in the past.

Given this history, it is drawing a very long bow to suggest the current drought is a consequence of global warming.

Inflows to major river systems have been exceptionally low throughout the Murray Darling Basin and this may be a consequence of how we are managing the landscape including improved on-farm water use efficiencies.

For many years farmers like Gary Johnston have been encouraged to not let water move below the root zone and recycle irrigation tail water.

Inevitably, with these strategies there will be less water moving down the system and into major river systems.

All industries are becoming more water use efficient.

Indeed, the Mount Buller ski resort has recently started recycling waste water, including into snow.

Again, this must ultimately mean less runoff and lower inflows to the Murray.

But let's not confused low inflows with low water levels as the ABC did recently, falsely reporting that water levels in the Murray River were at record lows.

Indeed the Murray River ran dry in 1914.

The difference now is that there are weirs and dams and so the river is full of water despite the low inflows.

While in the Jemalong irrigation district, comment was made to me that drought hits individual farmers harder now because profit margins are lower and agriculture generally less profitable despite efficiency gains.

This would suggest even more reason for farmers and governments to keep their eye on the ball and not be distracted by grandiose claims of a climate crisis.

Gary Johnston's focus is clearly on continuous improvement in how he applies his water allocation and also on valuing adding to maximise profits from the lucerne he grows.

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