THE BIG DRY: The tough story behind Richard Martin's beautiful Cassilis feeding footage

But from the lens on Richard Martin’s Phantom 4 drone, sheep are pouring into the paddock like liquid.

The ewes eddy around the Hilux - driven by Richard’s brother Miles - and stream after the ute as it leaves a trail of feed.

We zoom out, and a winding, wriggling, munching river has snaked over the Martins’ land, ending on a final shot that ties it all together.

“There were 2,600 ewes in that video,” Richard said.

“Lucky for us the sheep did all the work and followed the feed bin perfectly which is due to them being fed for a year. “Unfortunately the feed bin played up and we weren't able to draw Tasmania.”

It’s a great bit of cinema.

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And a great advertisement for the people on the land in rural New South Wales: As of Tuesday afternoon Richard’s footage had 80,000 Facebook views and was shared more than 1100 times.

But as the parched Cassillis earth suggests, the story behind the project is not without heartache.

‘Dalkeith Olde’ has been in the Martin family since 1890, with Richard’s father, mother and the three Martin siblings working around 6600 ewes (naked maggot taxis, according to Richard) and 1000 herefords over 4000 hectares.

Richard says rain records for the land stretching back another 20 years before the farm came into the family 128 years ago

And 2017 and 2018 have been the driest consecutive years the property has seen.

“We’ve had  26mm of rain for the last three months and this year alone only 140mm so far, less than half our average for 6 months,” Richard said.

It’s the second natural disaster the Martins have stared down in the space of a year

In February 2017 the Sir Ivan Fire burned 160ha and killed up to 200 sheep.

“Also on top of that fire, for the 2017 year, we recorded half our average rainfall, with the only major rain being in March,” Richard said.

The family have been feeding cottonseed to their weaners and heifers since January and have been feeding sheep since February 2017 after the fire.

“At the moment each week we are spending around $20,000 on stock feed alone,” Richard said.

Feed prices have skyrocketed over the space of a year.

The Martins started feeding faba beans at $250/tonne and are now paying $500/tonne, with the biggest killer being the freight costs.

“It's becoming harder and harder to source feed within NSW with the faba beans coming from Victoria, Lupins coming form Wagga, Cottonseed coming from Trangie and oaten hay coming from Camden and South Australia,” Richard said.

His videography started as a business move but has also been a bit of an escape.

“I bought the drone to try and advertise the property and also for checking water troughs and feed,” he said.

“I enjoy taking photos and videos of the property to promote the country life to the city people so that they can understand more about where their food and fibre comes from.

The video of the sheep being fed was post-shearing, when they were in a holding paddock.

“Surprisingly, there was no prior planing to drawing Australia,” he said.

“We decided 5 minutes before feeding the mob, hence why WA looked so strange.

“There was no pegging out it was just ‘freehand’.”

The Land