00:00Owning a dairy farm on the mid-north coast, Rachel Nicholson is no stranger to floods.
00:08There could be another flood, well there will be more floods, but it could be in another
00:13three months, it could be another three years, it could be in 30 years, so you don't know.
00:17After her farm was devastated in 2021, she installed a large feed pad where her cows
00:23could be kept off flooded paddocks when record-breaking floods hit in May.
00:28It paid for itself overnight when it came to this flood, it meant that all our milkers
00:32were safe.
00:34Farmers at this year's New South Wales Women in Dairy Conference were also looking to the
00:38small steps to keep the industry going.
00:41It is actually breaking it down into the bite-sized pieces.
00:45What can I do this week?
00:47What can I do this month?
00:48And sometimes it's that the calves got fed on time.
00:52Or it's that I made 15 phone calls, but I secured a load of hay.
00:59But as repeated natural disasters hit and milk prices stagnate, many are walking away from
01:05the industry.
01:06While the state's milk production has remained steady, the number of dairy farms has dropped
01:11significantly, from over 1,700 at the turn of the century to fewer than 500 last year.
01:17We had been through the drought and then we had the fires in 2019, and then the flood
01:22and then continued wet weather and, you know, all these little things just added up.
01:27After leasing for 10 years, Karen Kassar wants to see more done to introduce first-generation
01:33farmers like herself to the industry.
01:36If we had been able to find a farm that we were able to move into a lease purchase or something
01:41like that, I do believe that we would have stayed in the industry.
01:45Despite the challenges, there's plenty of hope for the future.
01:50The more we can stick together and build up our industry together, the better it will be.
01:57And knowing they're not alone is helping these farmers keep going.
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