AN abundance of summer rain has provided another hurdle for southern NSW cropping farmers as they aim to control weeds.
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The late harvest, which for some dragged well into January, has all but finished, however, now there is a rush to get weeds under control before the sowing of early grazing crops begins.
Bill Muller of "Nunlong" at Bethungra described the rain in the past week as patchy with 5mm in the gauge at his place and a contrasting 30mm at his son Simon's property.
The township of Bethungra received 80mm.
"We have sprayed half of one place for summer weeds and we will get this finished before early crops go in," he said.
"The rest will be sprayed next week."
Mr Muller said farmers certainly didn't want to knock back rain but recent falls had added to the challenge of a summer weed burden.
"It would have been better if the rain held off until early March or April," he said.
"But you can never say no to rain."
Mr Muller said there had been a three-week turnaround between finishing harvesting the winter crops from last year and then sowing grazing crops for 2022.
"This is very unusual ... something that is almost unheard of," he said.
Tony Clough of "Windermere" at Wantabadgery measured 30mm in the gauge in the past week.
A total of 150mm has fallen at his place for 2022.
Last year "Windermere" received 750mm for the year.
"We are currently on the spray rig controlling summer weeds," he said.
Mr Clough said he didn't have enough livestock to look after some of the weeds. However, summer rain meant that lucerne crops were thriving.
"We have lucerne that is two foot high," he said.