STEVE Dalitz is officially a statistic. Collateral damage.
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Broken on the wheel of drought – and corporate greed and mismanagement.
The dairy industry in which he has been a hardworking success story for a quarter of a century is also broken, leaving Steve a helpless bystander watching his decades of hard work and investment vanish before his eyes.
It has been an uphill battle for the past few years but now his future can be counted by days – and you won’t need more than your fingers to tick off the time he has left.
Because Steve only has enough hay to get his herd through the next 10 days.
Steve is not a greedy man, nor is he an idiot, but he has been forced to watch his farm equity halve, go through the heartbreak of generations of breeding quality loaded onto trucks (his herd has shrunk from 300 to 100) and, as the drought worsens, stagger at the soaring price of water.
Water that has become a commodity pure and simple – water owned by investment funds, other countries and speculators.
And he has absolutely no idea what he is going to do in just a few days – hope for rain or run up the white flag and walk off the farm.
Because it certainly looks like his beloved remaining cows will be gone at the end of the month.
Steve’s farm equity was worth more than $1 million; now he thinks it would be lucky to be $500,000.
Like so many other Australian dairy farmers, he is being brutally beaten by a perfect storm of things out of his control – dry conditions, exorbitant water prices, high input costs and greedy processors.
An industry worth billions of dollars to our economy is on its knees and in crisis.
Australian food security is threatened.
The environment, the birds, bees and the native trees dairy farms support are threatened.
Farmers are leaving the industry in droves, many don’t have a choice.
The only thing that could possibly save Steve is rain because he can’t afford to pay $620Ml for temporary water.
And there is not a drop of rain on the horizon.
“At this point the cows will all be going at the end of the month, sorry girls but I’m spent,” Steve said in a recent Facebook post.
“Selling the herd will kill me but I just can’t do it any more. I’m broken mentally and physically. My brain and body are exhausted – don’t worry, I’m not suicidal just worn out.”
Steve has had his farm on the market for the past 18 months.
He has cut costs and cut costs again, but the numbers just don’t stack up no matter how hard he tries and he can’t magically conjure up thousands of dollars to feed his cows and buy irrigation water.
Nor can he make it rain in a drought.
His cows are on once a day milking and there is not much more he can do.
“I used to be a good dairy farmer. Five years ago we had over $1 million in equity and after 25 years of busting my guts, I now have enough to buy a house.
“Being self-employed I have bugger all super but I always thought my cows would be my super. We had 300 cows worth $2000 each, now I have 100 worth $700.
“The last three years our debt has increased $300,000.”
Steve said supplying the country with good quality food and doing something he loved has, in the end, come at a huge mental and financial cost.
“Thank you to the executives at Coles, Woolworths, Saputo, Lion, Fonterra, Parmalat. You greedy bastards have destroyed our once great industry just for your greed. All we ask for is a fair price for our product. As our costs go up we need our milk price to go up.
“I am over dairy executives saying ‘we understand’, but, you can’t say but, if you truly understand the problem. Cut your wages and pay all your own flights and accommodation – savings you could then pass on to consumers.”
It seems Steve’s post has hit the spot, it has had over 600 shares and he has been flooded with hundreds of comments.
“I have even had messages of support from people around the world which is just incredible and shows what is happening here in Australia, is happening in the dairy industry overseas as well.”
A NSW dairy farmer said her business cannot continue to sustain current losses and unless something drastic happens by June she will be in the same position, while a Canadian farmer said some farmers were tipping their milk out.
“Anyone who has a God they believe in, could you please tell him Northern Victoria could do with 50mm of rain in the next week…. just 5mm this weekend would be good, we’re not greedy,” Steve said.
■BREAKING NEWS:
STEVE’S post has gone viral and at the time of printing has been shared well over 1300 times.
He has been inundated with offers of help and even had a visit and a chance to sit down and chat personally with Member for Murray Damian Drum.
“Last week I reckon I was a 10 per cent chance of staying in the industry and now I am up around 50 per cent,” Steve said.
A surprise 8mm of rain a week ago has helped his pasture and his parents have given him some money to buy some temporary water.
He now has enough feed and hay to get through to the middle of May.
“I have had a couple of donations of hay and I am learning to accept charity. One girl offered me a bale of lucerne hay and then turned around and offered me a whole paddock that hadn’t grown too well and her boss said she could cut that and give it to me.”
Steve said he has had lots of offers of help, including a woman from Tasmania who offered to milk his cows for a week.
“I have put her onto someone else and she is now heading to a farm in Gippsland to help another family.”
A mechanic who messaged Steve is also coming up to stay a week and will be servicing tractors.
“Aussie Helpers are supplying oil and filters and he will service 20 tractors. He will also be doing roadworthies and Aussie Helpers are going to help with that too.”
Steve said he had been humbled by the outpouring of support and was feeling a lot more positive than he was a week ago.
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