What started as a promising season has quickly slipped into a dry autumn weather pattern.

NSW Farmers Wagga and district chairman, Alan Brown confirmed the cool change was not a great sign for agriculture in this region.

"We are seeing the ground drying out," he said.

"The crops still look marvelous but the pasture growth has really slowed down because of the frost," he said.

While parts of the Riverina still appeared to be thriving Mr Brown conceded some livestock producers in the region were reverting back to hand feeding stock.

"These recent frosts are likely to do more damage to pastures than frost at this stage," he said.

Meanwhile, ABARES has issued the Australian Crop Report for June 2020 and it shows a staggering 53 per cent increase in winter cropping for 2020 to 2021 with a 23 per cent increase in the area planted.

The ABARES Australian crop report - June 2020 is forecasting a 53 per cent increase in winter crop production in 2020-21, with a 23 per cent jump in the area planted.

Peter Gooday, acting executive director of ABARES, said the opening to the winter cropping season in 2020-21 was favourable.

"Winter crop production is forecast be to be 44.5 million tonnes in 2020-21, which is 11 per cent above the 10-year average to 2019-20," Mr Gooday said.

"Yield prospects in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia are forecast to be above average given favourable levels of soil moisture at the beginning of June and the likelihood of above average rainfall in July."

This forecast assumes average seasonal conditions in spring. The area planted to winter crops in 2020-21 is forecast to be 22.5 million hectares, which is five per cent above the 10-year average to 2019-20 of 21.4 million hectares.

"The majority of this increase is expected to be in New South Wales, where seasonal conditions so far are much more favourable than during the last two winter crop seasons," Mr Gooday said.

The area planted to wheat is forecast to increase by 27 per cent to almost 13 million hectares, eight per cent above the 10-year average to 2019-20 of 12 million hectares.

RELATED READING: