We had 2000 merino sheep and 600 cattle on our farm in Bundella, NSW, but, after months without rain, we were in real trouble.
The feed we’d saved up quickly dwindled and with every inch of NSW in drought, there was nowhere for us to buy more.
Every farmer in the state was as desperate as we were.
We knew it would be impossible to continue feeding all of our herd so we had a tough decision to make.
We could either keep them on the farm and they may end up wasting away or eventually be put down by Martin, or we could sell them and their unborn calves to an abattoir.I fought back tears looking out at the cattle we’d raised for years.
We still don’t know when this drought will end, but Martin and I know we’ll pull through.
I felt frazzled as I phoned my friend, desperately searching for feed for my cattle.
Without grass and plants for our livestock to graze on, we had no choice but to buy in feed from across Australia.
It broke my heart watching the 170 youngsters being taken off early.
We can’t go on like this forever, but we’ll keep fighting to save our land as long as we can.

A wave of record-breaking heat across Colorado has increased fire danger and worsened drought conditions, meteorologists say.
"It’s kind of like summer came back here in the middle of September," said state Climatologist Russ Schumacher.
Colorado Springs’ heat has soared in September, breaking four daily records over the past week, say data from the National Weather Service in Pueblo.
In Grand Junction, 89 days have brought temperatures of at least 90 degrees, said Dennis Phillips, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service there.
"So yeah, it’s been hot," Phillips said.
"I think a lot of that can be attributed to the drought that we’re in and the fact that the monsoon was basically missing this year."
"Even above-average precipitation in the summer isn’t that much.
The only way they’re going to make that up is with a big snow season," he said.
It was sparked by lightning July 22 and had remained at less than 5,000 acres for weeks.
But the statewide forecast shows a better chance for above-normal winter precipitation, "which would at least keep things from getting worse, and hopefully start things on the path to getting better," he said.

PHOENIX – Phoenix residents can expect to pay more for water next year, as the city is seeking a rate increase to prepare for drought conditions and fix old pipes and facilities.
“We’ve been planning for drought for decades, and so this isn’t really ‘Oh my gosh, we’re running out of water,’” Troy Hayes, Phoenix assistant water services director, told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Friday.
“It’s more of we need to put infrastructure in to make sure that we can move it to where we need it to be so that we’re secure for the foreseeable future.” The city is proposing a 6 percent rate increase in 2019 and another 6 percent in 2020.
Hayes said 6 percent translates to about $2.35 per month for the average user.
“We have enough water for decades to come,” Hayes said.
“It’s not in the right place.” Some water is stored underground, so the city wants to install wells, pump stations and transmission mains to move the water if drought conditions persist.
The city also needs to pay to replace or repair aging pipes, pump stations and treatment plants.
“We have pipelines that were installed in the ‘20s and the ‘30s that are coming of age that we need to get replaced, and we’re going to be spending a large portion of this trying to replace those,” Hayes said.
The city also has five treatment plants built in 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s that need continual rehab and replacement work.
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Nailea Leon contributed to this report.

The Muslim Charitable Foundation (MCF) has delivered more than 33 tonnes of hay to drought-stricken farmers in western Queensland but says that it wants to raise more money in the coming weeks.
“It’s a big help, [and] it’s also boosted spirits,” Osman Rane, the vice-president of the organisation told SBS News.
“[But] it’s just a drop in the ocean really,” he said.
The MCF formed in 2009 among local business people to provide assistance and welfare to those in need.
It partnered with other Muslim groups for this cause, including the Islamic Council of Queensland, and Muslim Aid Australia, to raise enough money for 132 bales of hay, each weighing 250 kilograms.
Three semi-trailers have since made the delivery to farming representatives who would distribute the hay to the farmers.
“It’s not a lot but it’s going to help relieve a lot of those farmers for a short period of time,” Mr Rane said.
Donations were taken at Mosques around Brisbane and during Eid, which was celebrated last month to mark the end of Ramadan.
Mr Rane said that the community was ‘very receptive’ to the cause.
“Australian farmers are suffering because of this drought and as Muslims and Australians we decided to do something about the farmers, it affects everybody not just farmers themselves, but every Australian and every person in Australia.” In a video posted to the group’s Facebook page, Yusuf Khatree, a member of the MCF says the organisation is investigating other projects that will provide meaningful relief.

ASIAN flour millers are expected to seek rare wheat shipments from Argentina in coming months as a second year of drought in traditional supplier Australia curbs supplies.
But Russia and Ukraine are expected to run out of surplus supplies by the end of the year due to an autumn in output and strong demand for exports, forcing buyers are seek shipments from alternative origins, traders and analysts said.
“From December onwards and in the first quarter of 2019, we expect some of Argentina’s surplus wheat to come to Asia,” said one Singapore-based trader at an international trading company.
“We have lower wheat production in many exporting countries but Argentina is looking at a bigger crop.” Asia is the world’s biggest consumer of wheat.
Demand is expected to top 304 million tonnes during the 2018-19 crop year, a record 41.1 per cent share of global consumption, according to US Department of Agriculture forecasts.
However, several key wheat exporting countries have faced droughts in recent months, and traditional sources of supply may struggle to fulfil all of Asia’s needs.
Production in Russia, the world’s biggest wheat supplier, is expected to drop to 71 million tonnes in the year to June 2019 from an all-time high crop of 84.99 million tonnes a year ago, according to USDA data.
Australia lowered its wheat forecast by nearly 13 per cent to 19.1 million tonnes on Tuesday as a crippling drought across the country’s east coast has cut output from the world’s fourth-largest exporter to a 10-year low.
But wheat output in Argentina is expected to climb to 19.5 million tonnes from last year’s 18 million tonnes, well above the 11.3 million tonnes produced in 2015-16, the USDA data shows.
“There were some concerns over dryness earlier but recent rains have been very good in Argentina,” said one India-based agricultural commodities analyst at an international bank.

Nearly every square mile of New Mexico has been mired in drought over the last several months.
Low rainfall also spells trouble for the Carlsbad Irrigation District’s reservoirs and the farmers and ranchers who depend on them.
Last year, hundreds of farmers and ranchers got a full allotment from the district this year after a healthy 2017 rainfalls and adequate snow packs that fed reservoirs.
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The district expects next year’s allotment may be dramatically lower because there was less than an inch of rain between October 2017 and summer 2018.
To save water, the district is keeping most of its water in northern areas where the air is cooler and there is less evaporation.
While the district has been able to issue a full or close-to-full allotment for the past five years, Ballard said he’s nervous that those days could be drying up.
To ensure that levels in the Capitan Reef Aquifer, which provides most of the city’s freshwater, stay adequate, the city has imposed water restrictions during warmer months.
The city is also considering using effluent water, or waste water, throughout city parks, Hernandez said.

QUETTA: Once a city of forests with beautiful waterfalls and hunting spots, Khuzdar, is now fast turning into a desert due to a severe spell of drought.
Even residents are forced to migrate to other areas of the province.
The forest animals in Jhalawan are dying due to the seven-year long drought.
The mountainous regions of Khuzdar – Mola, Galach, Golachi, Shashani, Bhap and Kerthar – have been hit by drought, which is tarnishing the beauty of Balochistan.
Balochistan govt, Russian company join hands to end drought through cloud seeding The areas were at a time famous for hunting rabbits, deer, sheep and unique birds living in the mountains, but drought killed many species of these animals while hundreds migrated to other places.
A Meteorological Department expert blamed lack of rains in the area for severe drought, saying the situation was getting worse with every passing day.
The famous picnic spots in Khuzdar and Jhalawan with blue waterfalls have started drying up as the natural water level is depleting.
The people of Baochistan and adventurers have been demanding of the government to pay proper attention to these beautiful picnic spots.

Though our drought-ravaged farmers in the bush have been brutalised by a chronic lack of rainfall, it looks like city-dwellers also haven’t escaped the dry patch.
Sydney has been caught up in its worst drought since 1965, with Government projecting just 83 billion litres of water will fall into the city’s catchment dams this year.
“And it’s completely unknown what the climate is going to deliver to us in the next weeks and months.” However it’s not just uncooperative weather causing the problem.
A lack of rain has compounded with Sydney’s ballooning population and the associated surge in demand for water, exacerbating the shortage.
“We’ve got more population, our capital cities are all increasing, yet Mother Nature may be giving less precipitation.” “With increasing population and limited supply, are we investing enough?
It’s a good question to ask.” Wright says part of the problem is Australia’s “out of sight, out of mind” mentality.
When drought is unfolding in our immediate vicinity, drought-proofing infrastructure and water harvesting policies become a priority.
But once the drought breaks, the issue falls off the agenda, leading to reactionary water policy, rather than the preventative vision we need.
“When it’s urgent and front of mind, we think about it and government tends to plan and developments schemes.
Then the dam fills and it goes quiet.” “I think we do get a bit lazy and complacent.” Click PLAY below to listen to the full interview

OTTUMWA — September’s early rains knocked the drought back on its heels, according to a new map released Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The drought isn’t entirely over.
But extreme drought is gone from Iowa and northeastern Wapello County is now drought free.
It took months for the drought to build, but two weeks have completely changed conditions.
Here’s a look at the map for Aug. 28, before the rains began falling in southeast Iowa: Now take a look at the current map, dated Sept. 11: Almost a third of Iowa was in some form of drought two weeks ago.
That figure is now less than 7 percent.
The shift is due to unusually persistent rains at the end of August and early September.
It began with more than four inches in a single day in late August.
Rain now means the ground begins to recover moisture.
That will help with next year, if the area continues to see reasonable amounts of precipitation over the next few months.

Aa Aa GENEVA (Reuters) – A total of 275,000 people have been displaced by drought in western Afghanistan – 52,000 more than the number uprooted by conflict this year – with over two million threatened by the effects of water shortages, the United Nations said.
Reports from the U.N. and aid charities described farmers lacking seeds to sow following crop failures in some areas and livestock dying for the want of anything to eat.
In a regular update, the U.N. humanitarian office reported that 120,000 people fleeing the drought arrived in Qala-e-Naw city in Badghis province in the week to Sept. 9.
It estimated 2.2 million Afghans would be affected by the drought this year.
The U.N. cited an assessment by aid charity World Vision International that 99 percent of people in Badghis said their food situation was worse or a lot worse than a year ago.
"The assessment also indicates that most farmers lost last season’s harvest and nearly all of them lack seeds for new planting season," the U.N. report said, noting reports that about 40 per cent of livestock has been lost in Badghis due to a lack of pasture and fodder.
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), a U.S. funded food security monitoring service, said in a report on Aug. 31 that the number of Afghans in a food "crisis" was atypically high.
In Badghis and Faryab provinces, emergency outcomes are expected to emerge in January, FEWS NET said.
(Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by David Stamp) euronews provides breaking news articles from reuters as a service to its readers, but does not edit the articles it publishes.
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