The NSW wet season continues unabated, feeding a record high restocker market by simply growing grass while in the good cropping country, mice have bred up on spilled grain at levels not seen since 1984 - at the end of that particular drought.
On the North Coast there has been unusual torrential rain in tropical strips of inundation while neighbouring paddocks get a good watering without the wastage.
Richmond Valley cropping producer Damian Macrae, Kintail at Oakey Creek, via Casino, has planted more sunflowers than anyone on the North Coast - 52 hectares this season - much of it planted into wheat stubble.
With eight weeks to go until harvest, and flowers just beginning to shine - the February wet struck: More than 200mm fell in the past fortnight with 82mm falling in half an hour last Tuesday night.
Sunflowers have deep roots, but the winds associated with that squall - which knocked out power lines and dumped 125mm a few kilometres to the north - led to lodging in parts of the crop.
"We were fortunate this didn't happen when the seed heads were full," said farmhand Jack Hamilton.
"When that happens the flower heads face down and water can pool, leading to rot.
At Baryulgil between two ranges one tall cloud dumped enough to float tarmac off the roadway and wash away new sown paddocks.
"I've never seen so much water over the flats, said Mick Moorhead, whose family has grazed cattle at Baryulgil since 1900. "The site of the original homestead had a metre over the top. We've got two months work re-stringing fences that were washed away.
At Yulgilbar Station's Broadwater yards 16km to the north, the gauge captured 5mm.
The Coffs Coast hinterland was typically wet, with waterfalls thundering down Dorrigo Mountain while half a goods train, 1.5km long, derailed near Nana Glen when flash flooding off the coastal range washed ballast away. More than 8000 litres of diesel leaked into the Orara catchment from toppled locomotives.
In Central Queensland - still stricken by dry - promising storms quenched a few paddocks while in the NSW north rain continued to saturate valuable black soil paddocks.
At Walgett, farmers enjoyed scattered falls throughout the weekend with some properties recording as much as 37mm on Sunday, while others collected as little 5mm.
It was a similar story at nearby Cumborah as one farmer told the The Land paddocks on the southern side of his property had water lying throughout, while the northern portion of the property only recorded 8mm.
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