St James cropper Neil Lonie (right) and Tungamah resident Neil Greaves. "They call me little Neil," Mr Greaves said. They predict the charity sheep auction on Friday raised about $25,000 for the Royal Children’s Hospital. The auction happened right before next week’s sales at Shepparton Regional Saleyards were cancelled.
Photo by
Daneka Hill
‘Mixed bag’ is a good way to describe Friday, October 14.
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Those in low-lying areas were scrambling for sandbags and flat-out moving livestock to higher ground, while others were shrugging off dire predictions being made by emergency services.
It was all stations go at Shepparton Regional Saleyards — between a charity sheep auction and a store cattle sale, farmers were busy buying up.
Straight afterwards, Greater Shepparton City Council cancelled all sales for the week starting Monday, October 17.
“I’ve been run off my feet,” saleyards manager Brendan Carey said.
“Next week’s sales are cancelled.
“They are expecting it [floodwater] to peak Sunday/Monday and they are talking ’74 levels — so you won’t be getting in or out of Shepparton.
“The council made that decision only hours ago.”
Mr Carey said some farmers were happy to be out buying cattle on Friday, while others were “thinking they wouldn’t mind having no livestock right now”.
“No-one is panicking, but they are all aware it’s not going to take much rain to get us in a serious situation,” he said.
AWN Nelson Livestock sale agent James Pyke was helping out with the sheep auction.
“They (farmers) have all been through this before; you just have to manage your livestock and watch the warnings,” Mr Pyke said.
“You’ve got to move a little quicker this year, apparently it’s coming down quicker.
“The new people in the areas should be talking to their neighbours and be aware.”
AWN Nelson Livestock sale agent James Pyke was helping out with the sheep auction on Friday, October 14.
Photo by
Daneka Hill
Mr Pyke said the agency was receiving calls from low-lying farmers looking to sell-off livestock.
“I’ve already spoken with one client up near Nathalia to see where we can put his cattle and sell them,” he said.
“He rang me because he’s worried. He’s on the Broken Creek and he knows what’s happened before, so he’s moving cattle right now and getting them in the yards ready to sell.”
St James cropper Neil Lonie helped organise the charity sheep auction for the Devenish Dookie Good Friday Appeal.
“We’ve had 88mm at St James,” Mr Lonie said.
“It is very, very wet. Across the board, a lot of crops are in water. I think a lot of creeks are coming up and it’ll take out a lot of country.
“It’s devastated the crops around here — if it stops raining some crops might come right, but how are we going to get in the paddocks to harvest? You can’t drive on the ground to make hay.”
Mr Lonie said he drove through “a lot of rain” to reach Shepparton on Friday morning.
“When water is running out of a crop and going six inches deep across the road into another crop — that’s a lot.”
The charity auction saw 91 sheep sell, but there were a lot missing.
“We had one fella from Geelong who had a trailer load of sheep he was going to bring up but couldn’t get in because of the wet,” Mr Lonie said.
“He’s going to sell them down there and send the money up to us instead.
“We had 91 sheep but also a lot of cash donations from the farmers who couldn’t make it. I am very, very happy.”
Mr Lonie estimated the auction plus the donations raised between $25,000 and $30,000 for the Royal Children’s Hospital.
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