With recorded rainfall well below average across NSW, farmers are bracing themselves for a long, hot summer.
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Merriwa farmer Peter Campbell said he was planning to ‘make hay while the sun shines’.
“We are seeing a lot of farmers across the district baling straw this year.
“There is no bulk of feed and no native pastures growing and we have another three or four months of hot weather ahead.
“Unless we get rain to make the improved pastures grow, it’s going to be very tight,” he said.
Mr Campbell has a 6500 acre mixed farming enterprise which he farms alongside father Ron Campbell and his brother Mark, running 2500 sheep plus lambs and 750 head of cattle.
“We are feeding our ewes already.
“It’s just lucky we have the straw and grain to be able to do that,” he said.
With the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting dry weather through to January with no anticipated El Nino rain developments, Mr Campbell said most farmers were taking precautionary measures to get through summer.
“I think there will be some farmers that choose to offload excess stock, others will feed out.
“We will be feeding our production stock two months earlier than we had expected,” he said.
“The good harvest may be our saviour as we have enough grain and roughage with our barley and oaten straw that should see us through.
“It’s always a conundrum until you finish harvest you don’t really want it to rain.
“Now we have finished harvest, we wish it would rain cats and dogs.”