A DRY forecast has northern NSW producers debating whether to put stock on their crops or wait for rain.
B and W agronomist, Rob Long, Moree, said generally producers would have already started to graze early planted crops.
“If early crops that were planted on 30 per cent starting soil water haven’t hit the wall yet, they will soon,” he said.
He said producers would start to make more decisions on letting livestock on to crops in the next two or three weeks as they started to run out of moisture.
Bill Yates, “Delvin”, Garah, decided to put stock on some of his barley and faba bean crops a few weeks ago.
The crops were planted by the end of April and Mr Yates said he could tell they weren’t going to benefit him yield-wise.
Mr Yates has always sown his crops relatively early to avoid the yield being affected by a hot or dry spring, although this subjected his crops to a higher chance of frost damage.
This year, Mr Yates planted wheat, barley and faba beans on minimal moisture, which had started to cause it to stress.
“At some stage you have to make a call,” he said.
“You can put the animals on the crops to try and get them up to weight because at the moment, you’ve got to get them into a feedlot to get any value.”