YIELDS might be down, but the dry winter has led to higher than expected quality in a lot of regions as much of the harvesting of crops rolls on across the State.
"The prognosis is it will be a smaller crop than average," said GrainCorp director Angus Trigg.
Since October 1 more than 3,181,500 tonnes of grains have been received at various GrainCorp sites in NSW he said, noting the quality was generally high, regardless of which crops were coming in.
"The harvest is largely wrapped up in northern NSW from Gunnedah up, although there is still some to go on the Liverpool Plains," Mr Trigg said.
"In central NSW it is still coming in thick and fast, and in southern NSW they are probably about two thirds of the way through.
"By and large the quality across all grains has been good... protein levels have been very good," Mr Trigg said.
West Wyalong Landmark agronomist David Markham said quality was particularly good for the barley crop in the area, along with the oil from the canola crop.
Mr Markham also said most of the barley crop was of Feed 1 quality.
The quality of the wheat crop, however, was not as consistent.
"Wheat has been a bit all over the shop... it ranges from ASW to APH," he said.
"Protein levels are anywhere between eight per cent to 14pc, with a lot around 10pc to 10.5pc."
Mr Markham said management with longer fallows and the tighter finish to the season probably combined to lift some of the crop up to the 14pc level.
Yields were generally good for barley and wheat around West Wyalong, but slightly disappointing for canola, he said.
"Most have got about one tonne per hectare (for canola)... we usually aim for one and half.
"Barley is probably a bit of a winner, getting about two-and-a-half tonnes a hectare.
"Wheat has been anywhere from 1.4 to 2.5 tonnes. It just depended on whether you got under a bit of rainfall."
Mr Markham said there had been some weather damage from frosts and moisture stress, but most farmers in the area were satisfied with their winter crops.
Further south at Lockhart there was a similar story with yields down but quality up for wheat.
Delta Agribusiness agronomist Elissa Strong said protein levels for wheat were between 11.5pc and 14pc.
"The quality level has been really good, but it doesn't make up for the low yields," she said.
Ms Strong said yields were between two and three-and-a-half tonnes a hectare.
"Barley has probably been the best performer," she said, with that crop reaching up to four tonnes a hectare for some farmers."
NSW Farmers grains committee chairman, Dan Cooper, said the south looked the best, "but where I am (between Grenfell and West Wyalong), we only had 18 millimetres for spring, so that really hit hard".
He said there were strong variations across just a couple of kilometres, based on thunderstorm activity and soil type.
"At home, the red ground has yielded reasonably well, around three tonnes a hectare, but that drops by more than half on the black soil where crops didn't have the moisture to finish."
He said there were some pockets of good yields in the Central West around Forbes and into the south-eastern Riverina.
"It hasn't been a great year, but I think our water use efficiencies have been very good, so most people have got something."
Further north around Quirindi, high grain quality was shaping as a saviour of sorts.
Independent agronomist Peter McKenzie said grains across most crops in the area had high protein.
"Most crops have harvested better than they looked in the ground," he said.
"It has been a bit of a saviour.
"It probably doesn't really make up for low yields, but people have been surprised at how good the quality is."
Farmers were now concerned about the summer crops, with ongoing dry conditions meaning most would not attempt to plant, he said.
"There's not enough moisture in the profile to look ahead to summer crops."
