Less than one per cent of the Riverina remains officially “non drought” as the dry spell continues to put the boot into rural Australia.
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But most of the region has so far avoided tipping officially into the “drought category”, as some rainfalls keep farmers’ harvest hopes alive.
The Department of Primary Industries’ combined drought indicator shows 70.6 per cent of the region is “drought affected” and a further 28.6 per cent has been declared as officially in drought.
Drought affected is one the category below that of “drought” and reflects a worsening of conditions for farmers, with low rainfall and only modest ground cover growth.
A tiny 0.1 per cent of the Riverina is shown to be in the “recovering” category, the opposite end of the spectrum to “severe drought”.
Currently there is no area in the Riverina to have been classified as being in “severe drought”.
Winter conditions have so far lived up to the predictions of the Bureau of Meteorology, which had flagged a drier-than-average season.
Showers are likely this week, but the rainfall amounts are expected to remain in single figures.
Alan Brown, from Wagga’s NSW Farmers branch, said farmers needed to make some tough decisions, with graziers facing even more acute concerns than their cropping-focused counterparts.
“July has been abominable,” Mr Brown said.
“June wasn’t too bad. We had about average rainfall in the end, but not in July.”
So far this month, there has been 10 millimetres of rain. The long-term average for July is 55mm and the highest-ever rainfall for the month was 130 millimetres, recorded in 1993.
The lowest-ever July rainfall was 1.8mm, which was recorded during 1982, a year also gripped by drought.
The Wagga local government area is currently classified as “drought affected”, as are its neighbouring shires.
Parts of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and further west have been declared as officially in drought.
Mr Brown said graziers were having to make tough decisions on whether to continue buy feed for their livestock, or to “abandon ship” and sell the animals.
He said crops around Wagga were currently “not too bad”, but other regions were not faring so well.
"You don’t have to go far out of Wagga to see how bad it is,” Mr Brown said.
“I was in Dubbo last week and it is absolutely shocking.
“Here, we still have some hope. Yields might only be half, but there is still the hope of a harvest.”
Mr Brown said changes to the NSW drought transport fund could provide some relief for farmers faced with the increasing cost of buying feed to keep their stock alive.
“I have never seen the amount of hay being moved that is being shifted at the moment,” he said.
“The annoying thing is that the cost of freight is often a lot more than than the cost of the hay.”
Temora mayor and businessman Rick Firman said the drought was causing concern, but he still saw optimism in the community.
“We have to keep encouraging our farmers so hope isn’t lost,” Councillor Firman said.
“There are showers predicted for the region this week, so we are clinging to some hope.”
Cr Firman said his heart when out to farmers in other parts of NSW, particularly in the north-west, where the drought conditions were much worse.
“My heart does go out to them,” he said.
“But we don’t give up easily in regional Australia. We have to keep encouraging and supporting our farming communities.”
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