Lower Austrian farmer with plea for help: "It's never been this bad before"
An 80-year-old farmer in Lower Austria says she has never experienced a summer this dry. Her farm’s pasture has turned into a barren landscape, forcing the family to spend thousands more on animal feed.
Angela Binder has worked on her farm in the Lilienfeld district for decades. But this year’s drought has shocked her. She says previous dry periods lasted only a few weeks, whereas this year the lack of rain has continued for months.
The family runs a small organic dairy farm with around 18 cows. The animals can barely use the pasture anymore because there is almost nothing left to eat. Instead, the cows have increasingly had to remain inside the barn, where they are fed with stored supplies.
The drought has already forced the family to take painful measures. In June, they sold five pregnant calves because they could see that maintaining the entire herd would become increasingly difficult. The farm has also had to spend around €20,000 extra on feed.
Binder hopes the situation will improve in autumn, allowing the cattle to return to the pasture for at least a few weeks. But after months of extreme dryness, there is growing concern about whether enough vegetation will recover.
“This year is unlike anything we have experienced,” Binder said, warning that farmers cannot withstand many more summers under such conditions. The crisis is putting enormous financial and physical pressure on agricultural families across the region.
The farmer is also calling for government support, but she believes any assistance must be distributed fairly. She points out that her farm has paid into hail and drought insurance for years, with the government covering 55 percent of the premiums. She argues that farmers who took precautions should not be treated the same as those who remained uninsured.
Her story comes as Austria’s agricultural sector faces widespread losses from the record drought. Officials and farming organizations have warned of severe shortages in grass and maize, while some farmers have already been forced to sell or slaughter animals because they cannot secure enough feed.