It was Murphy’s law after a punishingly dry winter was followed by mid-harvest rain, halting headers in their tracks. 

So far 75.6mm has fallen this month at the Wagga AMO, over 60mm of which fell on December 2 and 3 alone. 

“After the rain some crops regrew and that’s slowed people down," Bernard Hart of Hart Bros Seed in Junee said. 

For many the focus is now on controlling widespread weed infestations. 

“Residue crops all have weeds that normally don’t come during harvest like fleabane, bindi eyes, hairy panic, farmers are busy trying to hold on to the water,” Mr Hart said.

Winter crop yields are a shadow of last year’s bumper result with the December Australian Crop Report forecasting yield losses of around 40 per cent. 

“Wheat production is forecast to decrease 42 per cent to 20.3 million tonnes, barley by 40 per cent to eight million tonnes, and canola by 31 per cent to 2.9 million tonnes,” ABARES Executive Director, Dr Steve Hatfield-Dodds said. 

Mr Hart said despite the big losses, some areas came out on top. 

“There were some very good areas down south, The Rock and Manoplah turned out to be fairly good and delivered above average yields,” he said. 

“Some people just didn’t get any winter rainfall at all to help those crops keep going, it’s been a fairly horrific year.

“Whilst it’s been frustrating, generally I think we’ve got happy farmers at the moment and I hope they all have a great new year.”