EVERYTHING fed to the stock on John Jessop's property comes off the back of a truck.
John, from Cobargo in southeast NSW, has been feeding hay every night since Easter last year.
And for the past three months, the 70m-long concrete trough at the side of his Smallridge Holsteins dairy has been filled with cereal hay night and morning.
Hay makes up half the diet of John's 160-head herd.
The rest of the 20kg of dry matter includes a grain mixture of bread pellets from Sydney, barley and mineral pellets.
A 25-tonne load of hay arrives each fortnight.
"We can keep feeding them, we just keep buying the feed," John said.
"The water is the scary one."
Up to 100ha of the 202ha property does not have access to water now the Niria Creek, which supplies essential stock and dairy water, is now just a puddle.
The creek had been dry "on and off" for the past 12 months, but John said the past two months the pipe feeding the dairy and stock had to be dragged further down the creek to the last of the water.
With less than 300mm of the district's 940mm average rain falling this year, things are grim.
Pointing across the road to a large, light-green paddock with little pasture length, John said he was mowing it this time last year.
While he only cut 100 tonnes of silage - a normal year yields 500 tonnes - he was still able to get a cut.
He ran out of water just after the silage was cut last year.
Irrigation will not be an option this year either, causing a concern about feed for the future.
"You can't get feed resources in front of you, that's the big problem," he said.
"If this was February, you would think 'oh, well, this is not too bad, we will hang on until it rains'."
Keeping the water up to their thirsty stud Holsteins, which drink 70-100 litres a day over summer, has become a concern.
Admitting the milk-price cut and drought combined has taken a toll, John said he wanted to keep milking and would try to keep going.
"The future is rosy I think," he said. "You have just got to be able to stick it out."
Artificial insemination has been cut back, with cheaper bulls and stud animals now being used.
The number of embryo transfers has also been cut and across the entire business John has been doing "only what (we) have got to do" in terms of maintenance.
The next generation is at the forefront of John's mind.
"The drop in price and drought has affected our succession planning, we have spent all our reserves," he said.
"And who would want to take it over in this climate?"
