The farmers in parts of New South Wales are facing losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars because record rainfall has stopped them from planting crops.
John Barber farms wheat and canola farmers near Parkes, and like many in the central west, has only planted 50 per cent of his seeds.
Barber recorded 450 millimetres of rain this year, an unprecedented amount that left paddocks too wet to drive machinery on and delayed the sowing season.
There is a three or four week period in which we can put canola in. Most of us missed that window because of the continuous rain, he said.
It is a similar story for Forbes farmer Neil Kingham, who has had to replant his crops three times this year.
In April, the canola we sowed sowed drowned because instead of getting the 10 to 20 millimetres forecasted we got 90 millimetres and that just laid in the paddocks and drowned the seed, he said.
It is an issue facing many properties across the state, according to agronomist Max Ridley.
He said that for the majority of New South Wales it has been wet and they have had issues with planting and crop emergence.
This year was hailed as an opportunity for farmers to recover the losses experienced during the 2017 and 2019 drought due to record prices for canola and wheat.
Barber said that farmers had seen costs go up and yields would probably be well done come harvest, pushing many to breaking point.
The Bureau of Meteorology has announced that La Ni a has ended, the weather pattern that has brought heavy rainfall to much of the state.
Kingham said that this had given farmers hope that drier conditions could salvage the harvest.
He said that we need a period of at least a month to seed the paddocks that are already waterlogged and give them a chance to dry out.
From there we need cool conditions with regular rainfall but not too much rain.