Drought Is Biting

[winkle]

Now that little Johnny has realised how bad this drought is now & told the press - should the AHB community be looking at bulk buys of malt - and I mean HB retailer/custommer orientated ones (ie wharehousing & preferred/prepaid customers). Don't forget its grim in Europe as well. We al could be back to schooner malts or 6 row soon. :angry:

 

[Josh]

Well the prices for JW Malts are going up from $50 to around $62 at my lhbs when the supply runs out. I got the last bag of Weyerman Pilsner malt for $61 that is also going up.

 

[blackbock]

It's happening with everything, not just malt. I got a mail order catalogue the other day and half the stuff has gone up by around 10%. So whether there's drought or flood, low/high $AU, or whatever, the prices just go up.

I can understand why malt prices have gone up though, grain crops this year have been pretty pathetic.

 

[Batz]

It's happening with everything, not just malt. I got a mail order catalogue the other day and half the stuff has gone up by around 10%. So whether there's drought or flood, low/high $AU, or whatever, the prices just go up.

I can understand why malt prices have gone up though, grain crops this year have been pretty pathetic.

Yes you haven't seen anything yet!
I am pleased I live were we can be semi self sufficient in many things,malt I have to buy

I don't think the Australian people fully appreciate the problem this country is in with the drought,and I can't believe how farmers many not be able to give their stock a drink,while city folk fill their swimming pools to the brim.


Batz

 

[jimmyjack]

don't think the Australian people fully appreciate the problem this country is in with the drought,and I can't believe how farmers many not be able to give their stock a drink,while city folk fill their swimming pools to the brim.

City folks are feeling it as well, we are starting to understand the impact and are starting to change our ways. If its yellow its mellow if its brown flush it down!!

Cheers, JJ

 

[Batz]

City folks are feeling it as well, we are starting to understand the impact and are starting to change our ways. If its yellow its mellow if its brown flush it down!!

Cheers, JJ

I am fully aware of that jimmyjack,I know you guys have restrictions.
Is it not that someplaces you have to water gardens with a bucket but you can top up a swimming pool with the hose?

Batz

 

[Duff]

Australia has more water than it needs, it's just a lack of infrastructure planning and development to harvest stormwater, and recycle the water which we gleefully watch flow into the ocean which has given us the concerns we face now. Sydney recycles only 3% of its water, but yet we get told that the lack of water is due to CO2 emmissions causing global warming and climate change. It is a myth.

And winkle, it's not just this current Federal Government's fault, it's prior Feds as well as the folks running the states who among them think the best solution is to build a $2 billion de-sal plant which will supply Sydney with 7% of its requirements. Bright idea that one :huh:

$hits me how the farmers and consumers are the ones disadvantaged, yet we have something like $90 billion sitting in some future fund to pay super to some of those bureaucrats who continually tell us what can't be done in relation to infrastructure.


Macquarie Dictionary:

Bureaucrat, n. One who follows rules without exercising intelligent judgement.

 

[Hashie]

My 2 cents.

Why is it the farmers and house holders that are being hit hardest?
I haven't heard, I could be wrong, of any industries being forced onto restrictions or not getting any water.
So industries like Coca cola (and many, many others) are still using mega litres of water yet farmers won't be allowed to use any.
I guess we can always eat money.

edit, spelling

 

[jimmyjack]

I am fully aware of that jimmyjack,I know you guys have restrictions.

Yup thats go. You have to have 3 out of 4 water saving requirements in your house. to your point about gardens and pools. I think the government has their head in the sand and really do not appreciate the severity of this drought.Their has been alot of attention in the media about pool owners wasting water. This just isnt the case. Most pool owners realise the importance of rain water tanks and pool covers. I have a 3000 ltr rainwater tank to top up and have yet to top up with tap water since the restrictions started. I think it would be pretty wasteful to do so. It is to easy for the media to point the finger at pool owners without considering the bigger picture. Most units do not have indivigual water meters to measure water wastage. So because they cannot measure it they do not worry about it. I like being self sufficient and would get solar power if it was cheaper and I got paid any residuals for recycling back to the grid. Just my 2 cents.


Cheers, JJ

 

[mayzi]

Something interesting for you. I live in a small rural community at the one man Police station. The only business out here is farming. Many irrigate their crops. They have a licence to do it and pay for a certain allocation of water. Because of the drought the irrigators have had the majority of their water allocations taken away from them. Many have had a zero allocation. This is fair enough and speaking with them on a daily basis, they are fully aware that the water isn't around. They're a pretty amicable bunch and down to earth when it comes to it. Most farmers out here are pretty much ok if they have 3 to 5 bad seasons. After that they start to feel it. The problem wth the water allocation is that the state govt. make them pay for their full allocation every year even if the govt turn around and cut it in half or down to zero! its not quite like our household water bill either, these are tens of thousands of dollars. But thats ok, the govt can turn around next week and offer them an assistance package to get them through..... how about don't charge them for the water they don't get and call thing square?

 

[simpletotoro]

there be a ye olde saying... "when you kick mother nature out the door...she'll come back brandishing a pitchfork" ...just a thought.

 

[braufrau]

This just isnt the case. Most pool owners realise the importance of rain water tanks and pool covers. I have a 3000 ltr rainwater tank to top up and have yet to top up with tap water since the restrictions started.

I don't think you're *most* pool owners jimmyjack.
In Brizzy when I was there last year there was a lot of anxiety and media coverage about the
drought and pools etc. None the less the neighbours where I was staying had their pool uncovered,
no tank in sight.
Here in Adelaide, awareness is much less and so are our water restrictions. Here we are at the end
of the murray guzzling what's left with one of the slackest set of restrictions in the country leaving
none for the farmers.
It scares me. Price of food. Price of malt. Price of chicken grain. Price of everything is going to go up.

Duff is right. We should be catching the rainwater in the cities. But! CO2 or not, this is trend. Its
a new climate, not a drought. rainfall map

Having said all that. We have a tank on the shed but not on the house. We have a well but no pump
on it so we can use it. Mea culpa!

'scuse the soap box.

-braufrau

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

And the whole water allocation issue will get much worse. Some farmers sell part of their allocation in order to survive. Then they cant buy them back because of the cost. Less water, less you can grow, less money you make, less chance of buying water to make more money. And it gets worse. Big business is moving in creating mega-famer and buying up allocations. They buy so much that the dont actually use all of their allocation, meanwhile the smaller traditional farmer struggles like hell and governments are powerless to do anything about it.

Just wait until the MIA ( Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area ) becomes Macquarie Infrastructor Agriculture, run by Malcom merchant banker

And when food prices go up, the farmers will still be getting the same for their product. When bananas where expensive, the growers where no getting payed more for their crop. I wonder which of the 2 big supermarkets made the most profit from Bananas

I grew up in the heart of the MIA and know a lot of what happens to the water

 

[simpletotoro]

"It scares me. Price of food. Price of malt. Price of chicken grain. Price of everything is going to go up."...braufrau

Yes you haven't seen anything yet!
I am pleased I live were we can be semi self sufficient in many things,malt I have to buy

I don't think the Australian people fully appreciate the problem this country is in with the drought,and I can't believe how farmers many not be able to give their stock a drink,while city folk fill their swimming pools to the brim.
Batz

i hear ya both..and i agree that we ain't seen nothing yet...this may seem off topic( but not to me)...wait till the rise in temperature thats predicted collides with the peak production of oil...
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0406/feature5/

couple this with water concerns (now and in the future) and she all looks pretty bloody grim...if not for me, then certainly for the (not so far away) future generations...and this isn't even thinking about the exponential increase in the worlds population....

yeah i'll accept that there'll be advances in technology...but never under estimate the sheer greed or stupidity of people...the romans used to have "bread and circus" seems to me we do as well...and lets not forget "nero fiddled whilst rome burnt" not much change on that front either...
oh well it was fun living in rome whilst she lasted...
simpletotoro

 

[Murcluf]

Here in Adelaide, awareness is much less and so are our water restrictions. Here we are at the end
of the murray guzzling what's left with one of the slackest set of restrictions in the country leaving
none for the farmers.

Level for level Adelaide on the harshest set of restrictions in the country, plus our water quality has always sucked as we get it after 3 other states have used it.

Industry has little to no restrictions placed on it as far as I know and they waste billions of litres a day. Every Australian needs to carry the burden of the drought not just the farmers and householders.

SA Water Level 3 restrictions
Sydney Level 3 restrictions
Brisbane Level 5 restrictions
Melbourne Level 3a Water restrictions

I get sick and tired of those who bag Adelaide especially those who live here.

 

[Bobby]

dont get me started on the de-sal plant. what a bloody croc.

drought possibly being caused by global warming = solution: pollute more so we can get more water.

 

[delboy]

WELL JUST TO ADD MY 2 CENTS WORTH

the dept of primary industries were told 20 years ago that Australia and its rice and cotton industry were the biggest offender as they use 20 x more water to yeild a crop than other agricultral industry that study was implemented by the government at the time own body (LIBERAL)(FRASER GOVERNMENT ,JOHN HOWARD WAS TREASURER AND PRIMARY INDUSTRIES MINISTER) but as always they did not listen "WHATS NEW"
> JOHN HOWARD IS SOALY TO BLAME AS IN THE SEVENTIES UNDER THE FRASER GOVERNMENT HE WAS THE MINSTER FOR PRIMARY INDUSTRY AND THEN BECAME TREASURER. funny that when they did a profile on little johney then (IN THE SEVENTIES)(SIXTY MINS DERREN HINCH)there was a big joke about how he failed maths and ecconomics at school. I remember all the jokes in the seventies "but i guess we have short memories"

Lets hope for a big tornado to destroy the cotton feilds and rice paddys

this is what the eviromentalist are saying get rid of thoughs two industries and start growing quality camodidies like our fruit and veg again. we all need to eat but we can always go naked LOL

delboy

 

[Brewer_010]

this is what the eviromentalist are saying get rid of thoughs two industries and start growing quality camodidies like our fruit and veg again. we all need to eat but we can always go naked LOL

delboy

That's actually a reasonably sound argument. An idea is to look at primary industries in this country that have high $$ returns for water use (rice definitely isn't one, but stone fruit, cotton & vege are).

It is worth remembering that irrigation is responsible for 90% of Australias water use, and that is where the need to save water is greatest. We can all go without fluching our bogs 50 times a day in the city, but we all need to eat.

The pricing of water is a good place to start - why can a big irrigator like Cubbie station store 70,000 mega litres of water and pay less than $4000 a year for it? The murray-darling basin commission said a couple of years ago that they could (emphasis) save 20% of their water use easily and with minimal cost, but they can buy it cheap so there's no incentive. And the Howard govt has sat on its hands and not sorted out the issue, even though they have had loads of chances.

My 2c (probably 20c) worth...

 

[tipsy_mcstagger]

All this could drive you to drink!

 

[Duff]

JOHN HOWARD IS SOALY TO BLAME

...all of this crap has reached crisis point on Howard's watch

And the Howard govt has sat on its hands and not sorted out the issue, even though they have had loads of chances.

So the state ALP goverments have been proactive in trying to deal with water issues and this is all the PM's fault?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.....