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Heavy rain and strong winds are set to move across parts of southeastern Australia this week. The conditions follow wet weather in parts of New South Wales last week. Some farmers are welcoming the rain after months of drought. I spoke to cattle farmer Anto White from the upper Hunter region of New South Wales, who's elated by the most recent downpour. Two weeks ago this was a desert and now as you can see your viewers can see behind me it is it's green. Not that it's got a lot of length but uh changing the color gives all us farmers certainly a lot of hope. Wonderful. How much rain have you had?
We had 40 mils two weeks ago and then we had a lovely follow-up last week with another 60. So 100 mils 4 in lots at this time of the year and we've been so lucky we haven't had a frost yet so the ground temperature is warm so we're going to get a little growth which is unbelievable. It looks wonderful behind you. It's very green as you say. It looked like a desert as you told us. Can you just describe how that view behind you looked a month ago? To all your viewers that was it's hard to believe but that was completely brown very little grass cover. The river behind me wasn't flowing at all.
Um and we've been feeding cattle now for 3 months. Feeding 700 head every day for 3 months. Wow. You've been hand feeding Anto? Hand feeding Rose yeah. And we will look this doesn't change dramatically but it has a dramatic effect on the cattle market. I mean last week 300 kilos steers have jumped a dollar which is amazing and in times like this the cattle market has been so solid so a lot of farmers aren't feeding they actually got rid of their cattle they sold early.
Oh, is that what you did? Got rid of some of your head of cattle? I got rid of some of my older cows, but no, basically I held on thinking that the numbers were finally dwindle out and that maybe the cattle market might increase and touch wood, that forecast has been correct. Well, we can hear the wind. The rain is coming, but the wind certainly is there. Hope your hat stays on, so how long will the rain the heavy rain last week keep you going for? Well, hopefully it will set us up going into the spring. As I said, we're going to get heavy frost now for most of the next 2 months, so we're not
going to get a lot of growth, but at least the soil is moist and then if we can get some follow-up rain, which the forecast looks quite good. Mhm. But we will be able to then we're in for a wonderful spring. Right. But you must have been very worried after months of drought before the rain last week. We were yeah, terribly worried, Roz. You know, the expense of feeding and now the price of diesel going up, so all hay had to come from Victoria and you know, it just puts huge cost on you know, the cost of running a farm.
A lot of people in cities might not be looking forward to more rain, particularly after the falls we had last week. What's your message to them, Anto? Well, look, I never hate rain. Rain is a good thing for us. Look, I used to play rugby and unfortunately councils don't allow them to play rugby, but look, get your shirts dirty, enjoy the rain because it means a lot to all of us. Anto White, it's great to have a chat. Thank you so much. Thank you, Roz.
