Rain brings magnificent start for winter crop season

"We didn't need that much, but you have to take what you get," is how North Star's Simon Doolin summed up the weekend's deluge.

His farm, Clevelend, at North Star, received anything from 180 to 220 millimetres, depending on which gauge he measured, and will now guarantee the start of his winter cropping program.

Mr Doolin said he was fortunate to have all his sorghum harvested, while he also expected his cotton, grown under three pivots, had also escaped damage even though harvest was just days away.

The extra moisture, meanwhile, will result in some changes to crop rotation plans.

"We'll be looking at double-cropping opportunities with chickpeas and also barley following up our sorghum stubble," he said.

Mr Doolin said there was a narrow strip of countryside from Goondiwindi heading south that received the heavier falls.

Neighbours east and west of him only received 80mm to 100mm of rain.

"It's also been fantastic for our pastures for the cattle. Soil temperatures are still good, so we'll get enough growth to see us through the winter, and we won't have to feed," he said.

He said farmers further west will have some issues with minor flooding.

"But it's probably better to have it now before they need to plant winter crops, than have it come a month later and cause some real problems," he said.

For many growers across the Moree district, the rain was like a double edged sword.

With 60mm to more than 150mm more typical across the local area, said Delta Agribusiness and Crown Analytical Services agronomist Rob Long, Moree.

"It is pretty dismal timing because defoliation is halfway through and picking was due to start. Some of the very early crops had started, but the bulk of the picking was due to kick off in two weeks," Mr Long said.

"Picking crops in wet conditions isn't much fun, plus there is a bit of sorghum still being harvested right now.

"On the upside, it is a magnificent start to the winter crop season. With April rain everyone will be able to get through and plant every hectare.

"There will be a bit of double cropping occur on the back of this, especially in the western side of the district where they missed out on getting a crop planted last year."

Mr Long said it would top all of those moisture levels up, and so long as it did not keep raining they were set for a phenomenal start to the winter crop season.

In the Macquarie Valley, CottonInfo regional extension agronomist, Amanda Thomas, Warren, said there was some early cotton picked, however, a majority of growers were still in the defoliation phase.

"At the moment, people are either doing their last defoliation or they're looking to get picking, so the rain has delayed that," she said.

As for the rain, she said in some cases where 40mm to 50mm was predicted, only 20mm was received, while closer to Dubbo, there was a lot more with falls across the couple of days totalling 103mm at the Dubbo airport gauge.

Ben and Wendy Mayne were in Tamworth early on Friday attending a weaner calf sale where their clients Tony and Sharon Haling, Hillside Park, Woolbrook, offered a large line of Texas Angus-blood weaners.

Mrs Mayne said they had returned to their property in the mid-afternoon with water flowing down the Crawford Arm Creek almost preventing them from getting home.

"We had about 182mm over Friday and early Saturday," she said.

Mrs Mayne said they were inseminating cattle until about 8.30 that night amid the flash-flooding which had overflowed contour banks and "turned our road into a river bed".

"I don't know what we're going to do," he said as she contemplated the resulting erosion.

Maria River Cattle Company owner, Jay McPhee, and his manager, Scott Waters, were also at the Tamworth sale where prices were lifting as news of the rain began to sink in.

Maria River Cattle Company has properties at Armidale, Yarrowitch, Walcha, and Tamworth. Its falls were 40mm, 20mm, 25mm, and 30mm, respectively.

Mr Waters said the New England properties were in good shape, and this rain would set the farms up for a good winter.