Some farmers in NSW and QLD have battle waterlogging while SA hit by frost, drought

Extreme weather is hitting farmers across Australia, with some of the worst ever frosts recorded in drought hit areas.

Some parts of southeast Australia have received just 4mm of rain for year while areas in northern NSW had full soil moisture profiles, and are awash with lush pastures.

Flooding rains to the north and droughts to the south have divided the nation and a contender for hardest hit are areas like Clare and Port Augusta in South Australia.

And harsh frosts - the worst ever recorded in some areas - have hit drought regions struggling for a break overnight Monday, with farmer Tiffany Bennett recording -6.9 degrees at 6am on Tuesday morning, at Mundulla West, near Bordertown. Frosts were also recorded across western Victoria, further setting back any pasture germination.

Further north Port Augusta in SA received just 4mm of rain for the year to date, the Clare Valley, 15mm, and Kingscote on Kangaroo Island, 15mm.

And down in Victoria, Hopetoun and Mildura recorded some of the lowest rain amounts so far, having picked up just 29mm and Charlton has had 35mm.

In comparison, major cropping regions further north hade had big falls, guaranteeing a cracking growing season for them. Highlights include Gunnedah, that’s had 353mm, Walgett has had 344mm, Narrabri had 337mm and Mungindi, 304mm.

online artwork May 21 rainfall winners and losers

In SA’s major cropping and sheep producing region of the Mid North farmers have had practically now rain as winter looms.

Sheep and grain producer Andrew Hall, Clare, said he had a total of 18mm for the year.

“We have finished lambing our Merino enterprise and have been feeding grain and hay every second day, the temperature is getting down to 1 degree now, so they will be drawing more on their energy reserves and need more hay,” Mr Hall said.

He has heavily downsized the flock already and was considering cutting back further, and has also been carting water for some parts of the farm.

A positive was lambing percentages were good, but now the Hall family was weighing up what winter crops to sown, particularly canola and beans, which had been the “biggest failure” in last years poor season. Without an autumn break, some neighbours that had sown canola crops that were “now stuffed”.

The mood in the community was “generally going OK”, and government drought support had been helpful. “But, like anything, people do put on a (brave) face, and you never really know how they are.”

In NSW, Northern Rivers cattle producer David Scarrabelotti said he had stopped recording rain, but it was “too much”.

“We are summer season here and the last thing we want is waterlogging in winter, so we have had to move cattle off the low country,” he said.

“We don’t want to complain about rain, but we are not going to get much growth here now either; the saving grace has been the good cattle prices.”

Things are tough at Broken Hill too, with Elders agent Lachie Keach saying “many areas here are about to enter drought again”.

Mr Keach said “some people have missed out entirely while others got storms, Wilcannia is not too bad, but places like White Cliffs are stuffed and we are past our chance of rain now.”