At Yarto near Booligal, woolgrower Greg Rogers has seen in his wettest June on record, of over 95mm. He received another 8mm in mid-july and more rain to late July.
So far, nearby Ivanhoe has had 22mm in July. Many eastern parts of the Western Division have had similar totals for July.
Mr Rogers said this would set his Merino sheep flock up for a strong spring and surplus sheep would go to market well-conditioned.
"It's the wettest June I've seen in my lifetime," Mr Rogers, 60, said. "Although the rain hasn't been substantial all year, the outback is looking very good. It means many of us will have a very good spring. We had a dry autumn but the sheep are picking up and we will be able to send some to market in spring in very good condition."
But the winter rain has not been consistent all over the state. Up and down the coast it's been a "dry July", and there are several areas of concern in the Far west, with especially the far south west corner of drought concern. Anywhere close to the South Australian border is looking for rain and anywhere about 100km north of Warren up to the Queensland border, dust is being kicked up, despite a strong start to the year.
Scott Wallace, the Department of Primary Industries' state seasonal conditions co-ordinator, said the far south-west of NSW was "the main concern from a drought perspective".
"Rainfall in the far North-West has also been below average and in July most of the coast was below average," Mr Wallace said. But rain through the central and tablelands areas had been good in June and July and set up a vast area of the state for "a good season in the spring". "Soil mositure levels in these areas are all quite high."
But all agricultural and hydrological indicators highlight a serious drought situation developing in the far south-west.
The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted a negative IOD for spring that may see above average rainfall to much of the South-East.
The DPI's July seasonal outlook released on Friday, August 6, says that 96 per cent of the state is in non-drought or in drought recovery.
The main points were:
- Average to above average winter rainfall has supported a strong seasonal production outlook for most of NSW.
- The rainfall has raised concerns of waterlogging in some districts, particularly the central and tableland areas of the state.
- While rain has improved conditions across most of NSW, slow, variable and delayed patterns of drought recovery continue in parts of Western NSW and western areas of the Riverina and Murray regions.
- The NSW DPI Combined Drought Indicator (CDI) shows 96% of NSW is in the Recovery or Non-Drought categories.
- The official climate outlook indicates moderate to high chances of above median rainfall across NSW for the next three months.
At Riverview Farming near Hillston, Michael Storrier said he had confidence at least two years' ahead now for irrigation water from the Lachlan River, with allocations they can spread over two years.
Riverview had planted irrigated and dryland wheat and faba beans and would head into summer plantings with maize and cotton.
"We're now back in full production for the first time in three years. Everyone is very pleased around here about how things are going. We will see at least two years of good production from now on, that's pretty good for farming."
On the back of 90-10mm in June, the wheat, dryland and irrigated was looking very good. "We have very good soil moisture profiles and it's not too wet."
The major issue had been the skyrocketing cost of urea, now hitting about $900 a tonne.
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