THE ANXIOUS wait for winter croppers across the country continues with further rain this week delaying the eagerly anticipated start of harvest.
Northern NSW has been one area extremely hard hit by heavy rain.
While there are expected to be heavy crop losses in places due to the falls of in excess of 200mm late in October there is cautious optimism that some crops will be well worthwhile harvesting.
"It is going to depend significantly on local factors, the amount of rain, obviously, but also the soil type and topography," said Grain Producers Australia northern region director Matthew Madden.
"We received the heavy rain and had flooding east of Moree but things were starting to dry out before another 30mm this week, so we're hoping to get harvesting once it dries out again and we'll know a lot more then," Mr Madden said.
"Obviously there is going to be quality damage and we're not sure of the extent of the yield losses, there still could be a reasonable amount there, it really is a matter of waiting and seeing what happens when we're in the paddock," he said.
"The good news is that there is fairly good money on offer for feed quality grain so unlike other years when we've had downgraded wheat where we could only sell the product for $80 or $90 a tonne we will be able to generate a reasonable income if the yield is there."
Mr Madden was less upbeat about the floodplains to the west of Moree.
"Those floodplain areas are very wet and there is the potential for them to stay wet for a long time given the heavy soils and the lack of a grade.
"We never know how the crop will react to waterlogging but history shows if it is in water for weeks and weeks on end it is unlikely to be a fantastic outcome."
On the cotton front, Mr Madden said there had been some newly planted cotton washed out but added it was not across the entire region.
"Like the winter crop, damage will come down to the individual paddock and what has happened there, we will see some paddocks needing to be replanted but others will get through."
Further south, it remains extremely wet in southern NSW.
Centres such as Albury have recorded in excess of 150mm in the past two weeks and there are flood warnings in place for most major rivers in the region, including the Murrumbidgee and Murray, along with tributary creek systems such as the Mirrool Creek.
The wet weather has also spread to South Australia in recent weeks.
After escaping the worst of the deluges through early spring the Mid North has been especially hard hit, with over 80mm in the past fortnight in Clare and Roseworthy.
Malcolm Bartholomaeus, Clare, said there had been heavy rain since Sunday with some areas near Clare recording 80mm in that time alone.
He said the major impact of the rain was likely to be on hay crops.
"There is some hay still to be cut, which is very late, but there is also a lot on the ground and it won't have been done much good with the rain that has fallen," Mr Bartholomaeus said.
"It is disappointing for hay producers, especially with the likely shortage of fodder across the country, but they will wait and see how it goes when it dries out," he said.
In terms of grain crops, he said there was the hope there would not be significant damage.
"We've seen pockets of water susceptible crops like lentils go off but by and large we've hopefully avoided the worst of the disease that has done so much damage to the east and the actual water itself passes through this area reasonably quickly as it is so undulating."
"We've seen a bit of lodging but that generally isn't too much of an issue, what I would expect is the immediate creek flats would probably suffer damage but that does not represent a lot of hectares in the big picture."
Mr Bartholomaeus said the region's large viticulture industry was also waiting for a break in the weather.
"Grape growers are hoping for some better conditions to help with fruit set, this cold and wet weather is not what they are looking for at this time of year."