SEVERE weather is causing chaos for Hunter Valley famers, with one Stroud breeder losing half her herd.
Heavy falls and gale force winds have hit producers in the region, with stock losses and property damage reported.
Dungog has received 312mm since 9am on Monday, with 259mm recorded near Bulahdelah and 176mm at Wallsend.
Across the Sydney Basin and Illawarra and Hunter districts people have been rescued from floodwaters after widespread flooding, power failure, road closures and property damage first hit on Monday.
Felicity Blackmore, who lives on Mil Creek, four kilometres north of Stroud, lost about half her small herd of Angus cattle - 18 cows in calf and seven young heifers. She was keeping them to breed from.
"I doubt we'll find them. I'm heartbroken," she said.
"One of our neighbours has lost more than us. Another farmer about 8km away lost his dairy cattle but they managed to get out and they've ended up in our paddock."
Mrs Blackmore said she wasn't expecting a flood, as forecasts were suggesting the rain was closer to the coast.
"I reckon we got 300mm between 9pm and 5am this morning."
Mrs Blackmore said she'd spoken to the previous owner of her property, who said the last time a major flood event had occurred was 1955.
Tocal Agricultural College principal Cameron Archer said the torrential rain was unprecedented.
Tocal received 240mm to 9am this morning and a further 90mm so far today.
Mr Archer said a lot farm infrastructure in the area has been damaged.
“There’s roads closed and sheets of water across roads where I’ve never seen it before. There is a lot of low-lying country under water with winter feed lost, and because of how rapid it was, some farmers have irrigation pumps underwater,” he said.
“There’s a lot of damage to fencing in low-lying areas as well as from trees coming down over fences.
“Most people got stock out of it but it’s hard to know what will happen because it is still belting down,” he said.
“It’s going to make it tough with winter feed for anyone to get back on and get feed in.”
He said Tocal had 80km of fencing to check.
