James Houston with his brother, sister and parents run “Burrowye Station” near Corryong in northern Victoria and have had 500 head of older Reiland Angus cows on the road near Holbrook in NSW, and are taking them home to calve.

On the way they are picking through some top feed on the stock routes in southern NSW. Mr Houston is a modern thinking farmer and is keen on maintaining biodiversity through conservation grazing to help keep Australia’s long paddocks used and useable.

He says he performs a public service by grazing his cattle on the routes in a sensible fashion, the cattle eating the drier introduced feed and then allowing native grasses later to emerge, grasses such as wallaby grass and red grass. But he’s finding it harder every year with all the rules. (He says he can’t take cattle on travelling stock routes in Victoria anymore, a situation he says has caused severe fire risks because the edges of roads are no longer grazed.)

In NSW he has come up against “ridiculous bits of red tape”. He was told to divide his herd in half and have them separated by 30 minutes just because his cattle were east of the Hume Highway.

It follows another LLS direction to a drover near Cooma last month who was told he had seven days to get his herd off the road, but the LLS later said this was a mistake.

He says the LLS team leader for travelling stock routes in Deniliquin who told him to divide his herd, admitted he was not that familiar with routes to the east of the highway and was not aware why the 300 limit was designed. The LLS later cited road safety issues. He says the LLS did try to work through some of the issues with him. But he said the language needed to deal with LLS officials and get droving permits for stock routes would bamboozle most farmers.

Most stock routes in the Murray LLS have now been closed, the LLS citing the drought conditions, although Mr Houston, one of the last drovers through, says he knows of feed two foot high in many areas. “There is ample feed in the Upper Murray region, but they are making a blanket decision because now they say there is limited winter growth. I said, allowing cattle to graze now allows active winter grasses to grow and that would produce more feed in the spring time,” Mr Houston said. 

Related: Good afternoon, you have to get off the road

The Land visited Mr Houston out on the road and it was evident that dividing the herd in two parts only added to safety issues, as drivers sped up thinking they’d passed the cattle, only to find another herd further up the road. He said the LLS was trying to help him, working collaboratively in “comic nuances of rules and regulations”. The whole of the TSRs was under a management review plan that will take six months, but he wasn’t allowed to give input.

“I don’t  feel they understand conservation grazing at all. I mean they say they are worried about the effects to biodiversity because of cattle on the routes, but conservation grazing actually helps biodiversity. I feel they have inexperienced rangers who have been moved from other departments such as the Catchment Management Authority. I mean as far as maintaining biodiversity we are on their side.”

He said he had no choice but to split up his herd when he went under the highway at the special cattle underpass at Holbrook. “They had us at the point of a barrel,” he said. “The other issue I have is that there is no appeal system on LLS directions. There is a real crisis looming from the continuing drought lasting longer and longer into spring and early summer, and people in these positions of power stopping access to reserves and routes, they are really putting people to the brink of mental health.” He said there needed to be an independent panel for appeals.

David Clarke, Team Leader Stock Reserves, Murray LLS, said Mr Houston was advised some time ago that there was a maximum herd size area east of the Hume Highway. “Mr Houston was advised on the 22nd of February that the maximum herd size permitted in the area east of the highway was 300 primarily due to road safety reasons,” Mr Clarke said. “Mr Houston subsequently chose to apply for a permit for 500 cattle, knowing the conditions, that commenced in early April.  LLS TSR Rangers worked closely with Mr Houston to manage the 300 herd size limit east of the highway.”  

Mr Clarke denied that rangers and himself had not met Mr Houston face to face or that they hadn’t been east of the highway. “No that is incorrect – the Murray LLS Travelling Stock Reserve Rangers regularly visit the TSRs in this area. The LLS Team Leader of Travelling Stock Reserves met with Mr Houston face to face on the 24th of April for 2.5 hours to discuss a number of matters.  In addition, TSR Rangers regularly met face to face with Mr Houston while he was droving in the area.”

Mr Clarke admitted the LLS was restricting access to the routes. “In response to the dry conditions access to the TSRs is being restricted. “It’s important to consider that TSRs are not immune to drought and LLS must continue to manage them in accordance with those conditions to allow for a quick recovery when conditions improve.”

The LLS supported conservation grazing. “Properly managed grazing can be, and is, used to improve the biodiversity of the TSRs.  LLS regularly uses grazing as a conservation tool to graze down introduced grass species.”