GIVEN the past three years, Steve and Jen Green never thought they'd be a bit on edge about the possibility of their Forbes country flooding.
Already 50 hectares of vetch, at Mirridong, Cudal, has outperformed itself and lodged over, top heavy with the damp.
Two fungicide sprays later and they're turning cattle onto it.
"If there was another spray, it would have had to have been by plane and the numbers just didn't add up, even though vetch makes fantastic hay," said Mr Green.
But a crop of May-sown Coolah wheat at Cudal is at this point looking at going north of four tonnes to the hectare and, and given 25 millimetres of rain in September or October, should go "well north" of 4t/ha.
Deep soil testing found the Cudal country "a little bit hungry", while unusually Glenorie, at Forbes, needed no top dressing.
The Coolah wheat took 80 kilograms of nitrogen to the hectare at sowing and 100kg/ha in crop.
It's a full cropping program at both properties this season, with 300ha of Moby and Planet barley and 250ha of wheat.
They've tended towards grain crops this year, a little unusual, but given recent history, Mr Green reckoned it made sense.
Out at Forbes the barley will also go for grain.
"We've got barley out there that's off the charts," he said.
The danger now is frost or flooding, because most of the crop is just a little more advanced than they'd like, he said.
"We're watching Wyangala very closely and basically crossing everything."
At this stage the Greens reckon they'll sell the wheat off the header at season's end and store the barley as back up for their cattle trading operation.
"We buy in heifers at 200 to 300 kilograms and take them through to weight for Coles (about 400 to 450kg)," said Mr Green.
At Forbes they mostly trade sheep.
For the first time in three years they have a modest irrigation allocation (about 9 per cent) for the Forbes country.
"We'll have some sort of summer program, maybe some grain sorghum or a dual purpose sorghum," said Mr Green.
The Greens' experience is not uncommon.
Department of Primary Industries grain services technical specialist Peter Matthews said ongoing rainfall had recharged soil profiles and paddocks were now saturated in some parts of the state.
He said a big rainfall event across much of the central and southern regions could cause paddock waterlogging and some isolated flooding causing crop damage.
Any late weed control sprays in paddocks that have been wet and untrafficable are now needed to avoid harvest issues and dirty paddocks for the 2021 season, he said.
"The showery weather and frequent rainfall have led to foliar diseases kicking off and reports of stripe rust have been coming in across the state," said Mr Matthews.
"Growers need to monitor crops, particularly on more susceptible cereal varieties for rust in wheat and powdery mildew, scald and net blotches in barley.
"If growers haven't already put in place a disease management program, they should seek advice and apply fungicides to susceptible crops to protect yield potential.
"And with the season indicating big yields, late season nitrogen management in wheat crops will be critical.
"With the likelihood of a bumper crop, growers don't want to be caught out delivering low protein wheat into the market, which could result in discounted prices at harvest," Mr Matthews said.
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