Australia

No looking behind after drought backtrade | Make it rain

SHE had “everything [she] ever wanted” but then drought forced the difficult choice to sacrifice most of it.

The decision to “backtrade” is a strong theme when Jenn Sansom recounts the past few months, but shes not complaining and shes not looking back.

The horse trainer and “small fry” cattle producer saw the writing on the wall and pulled up sticks from Halls Creek in March.

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Now living in Coonabarabran, shes given up her dream property but says “its pointless looking back”.

“Im a person who, once Ive made decision, right or wrong youve gotta live with the decision youve made,” she said.

Ms Sansom bought her place at Halls Creek in 2010, when “grass was leaping out of the ground”.

She had a job in Tamworth to help pay the bills; and she established her own business with clinicians and trainers using her horse accommodation and arenas to run clinics. She also set up a shearing shed.

Those exciting years came to a screeching halt and it all became too hard: the 40km commute to and from town on an unsealed road, earning money to scrape by paying for feed, with no end in sight.

“I realised it just wasnt going to rain and this was it.”

Im better off than most

She sold up whatever she could – her property, all of her calves – and moved to 130 acres at Coonabarabran, where she know no one.

“Im in a way better situation than other people, so I cant complain,” she said.

“But if I hadnt moved when I moved, I would have ended up with no stock, a desolate place with no rain and no quality of life.

“At end of day, Im closer to 60 than I am to 50, and you have to make decisions about what you can and cant do.”

Luckily, Ms Sansom found Coonabarabran to be “a great town – happy I chose it”.

She has held on to 20 breeding Angus cows, as well as eight broodmares, two registered heritage stock horse stallions and two saddle geldings.

“We haven't had any decent rain in three months … but I was blessed inasmuch as the fellow I bought [the Coonabarabran property] off hadnt flogged it out,” she said.

“There was a lot of dry plains grass, and we managed to fill the shed up with big oaten squares.”

Ms Sansom said some were unable or reluctant to make those tough choices to downsize, destock or even move, but she was a practical person and had a lot to be positive about after her choice.

“Where I am now, Ive got a roof over my head, a part-time job in town 10km away, a tar-sealed road and Ive still got my animals, so Im better off than most … [I just] hope to God one day it rains.”

This story No looking behind after drought backtrade | Make it rain first appeared on The Northern Daily Leader.

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Nyngan Observer

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