He believes he has to be, with the drought taking its toll on the community both financially and mentally.
“Everybody’s doing it tough. I go down that road and we’re all in trouble,” Rough told 7NEWS.
“You put on a Teflon coat and walk forward.”
A 27-year veteran of dairy farming, the producer from inland of the Sunshine Coast says it’s never been this dry.
It’s been 42 days since there has been flow to his stretch of the Mary River.
“It’s unprecedented,” he said.
‘You put on a Teflon coat and walk forward.’
“We can’t seem to jag a storm and I’m now starting to be concerned about having stock water.
“There’s rainforest within 20km of me as the crow flies and we’re literally looking at running out of stock water.”
On Wednesday, he sent 20 cows to the meatworks, bringing the total to 50 in the past six weeks.
The loss amounts to $1,300 per day.
Struggling industry
It’s not just Rough who has had to make sacrifices.
It’s a common story across the state, with the industry’s latest figures showing an almost 15 per cent decrease in milk production from last year.
“It would be a very significant loss to the local economy for us dairy farmers to start going out of business, and that’s very close to what’s going to happen here,” Rough said.
