The heavens may have opened a little overnight, but Gunnedah is still heading for one of its driest February’s in almost 20 years as dusty, hot conditions continue to batter the north-west.
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The shire has only received 8.8mm of rain this month - well below its 74mm February average. The lowest was recorded in 1960 where just 2.5mm fell, and after that in 1986 (3mm), 1995 (8mm) and 1996 (8.6mm).
Until the skies opened up last night, Gunnedah was looking at some of its worst February rainfall in decades, however the town received 2.2mm overnight to bring this month’s total to 8.8mm.
The recent dry conditions follow a patchy few months for rainfall in the shire, with January recording 89mm, December 129mm and November just 18.2mm.
Although some farmers were able to benefit from some of the heavier falls around Christmas, many landholders missed out.
“There’s a line virtually that runs from Baan Baa to Mullaley, across the stock route to Mendooran - a real patch that missed all the rain,” Gunnedah stock and station agent Guy Gallen said.
“It rained over the river and north to the west of Boggabri, but it hasn’t rained to the south and west.”
The dry weather and subsequent hot days has meant farmers are now either supplementary feeding, selling up or sending cattle away on agistment which is becoming difficult to find.
“One client sold some calves.... pulled them off the cows because he couldn’t see any rain coming,” Mr Gallen said.
“They’ve virtually gone back to their core breeding herd, pulling the
calves off early and maintaining their cow herd because they can’t find agistment.
“It’s very, very worrying.
“There seems to be day after day of cloudy weather and it’s not giving us anything. You’re looking at the skies and it might rain, but nothing’s coming,” Mr Gallen said.
The Kings at “Montana,” near Mullaley, have been one of the unlucky ones in a strip that has missed out on some of the big rain.
“The last storm we had 35mm, but we’ve had no appreciable rain
since then so we’ve been missing out,” Robyn King said.
Some crops are also experiencing some signs of stress, however many are still hanging on and there is still hope of a decent yield.
Gunnedah-based NSW DPI agronomist Bill Manning said if growers could get some rain now, it would add a lot of yield.
“In sorghum particularly, there’s quite a few crops coming into head now and there’s also some that are drying down but it’s not too late,” Mr Manning said.
“I think some of them are moisture distressed, but it’s not a disaster.”
Mr Manning said it’s been a very “up and down season” weather-wise.
“We had a lot of rain over Christmas and then seeing it dry now. I guess you have to say dry autumns are not unusual here but certainly from next month on, people would be wanting some rain to plant forage crops and we’d like some rain to help fill moisture profiles for winter,” Mr Manning said.
