Riverina farmers upbeat as unexpected run of dry weather sees many complete harvest in time for Christmas

This year, mixed farmer Matt Lane grew about 5,000-hectares of crop at his property to the west of Wagga along the Murrumbidgee River.

Growing crops of wheat, barley, canola and vetch this season, Mr Lane was both pleased and surprised to wrap up harvest a week out from Christmas, especially given some of his crops were flooded just weeks ago.

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"Me and farmers across the district thought we'd all easily be harvesting through until the new year," he said.

"But it would have to be one of the driest harvests I've seen in 25 years as far as rainfall is concerned.

"We had one event where we only received about seven millimetres and that was it.

"So it's been a nice, dry harvest. We had some good weather and we finally got it finished."

But it has not been all plain sailing for Mr Lane, who lost a significant amount of crop to flooding.

"There was 1200 hectares of wheat on the river. We lost some yield on that," he said.

"We also had some canola washed away.

"All up, we probably lost about 300 hectares of canola after it was completely wiped out.

"In one 150 hectare paddock we only harvested about 50 and lost the rest."

But there were also some positives to come from the harvest.

"The standing canola was really good and yielded 2.5 tonne [per hectare]," Mr Lane said.

All things considered, he is optimistic about how the season turned out.

"Given it's been one of the wettest years on record, I think the crops have handled it pretty well," he said.

Looking across the wider region, NSW Farmers Wagga branch chair Alan Brown said many farmers are in a good place heading into Christmas.

Mr Brown said many grain growers across the region are likely to finish harvest before Sunday.

"At least half and maybe two thirds will be done by Christmas," he said.

"I'm hearing quite a few people are finishing up, particularly west and north of Wagga where they weren't impeded by really wet paddocks."

Mr Brown said it is "remarkable" to see just how much the country has dried out since the "big wet."

But not all farmers will be as fortunate and Mr Brown said those in clay country will likely take more weeks yet as the water refuses to drain away from their paddocks.

"I think we will see [some] farmers harvesting well into January, because they are waiting until they can get into the paddocks," he said.

This will not be helped by the fact Wagga recorded 17.6 millimetres of rain mid-week.

"That is enough to stop people [harvesting] for at least 24 hours, because the grain absorbs moisture when it's that wet," Mr Brown said.

On a more positive note, he said the recent windy weather and the warmer temperature forecast coming into Christmas will help get those farmers back in the paddock.

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