Alan Nicholson, Moorine Rock, has cut out 50 per cent of his 3000ha program this year following a complete lack of rain since he started seeding on May 1.
THE Rural Financial Counselling Service of WA (RFCS) is urging farmers and rural businesses affected by the prolonged dry conditions to speak to their banks now if they are anxious about the season ahead.
Cunderdin grower Stuart Mussared has received just nine millimetres of rain on his property since he started seeding in early April.
RFCS central eastern Wheatbelt counsellor Michael Harries said there was real concern across the northern and eastern Wheatbelt on what affect the dry autumn conditions will have on the balance sheet.
“The way the season started with those early rains in summer, everyone was quite buoyed by that and they had belief that there was going to be a reasonable outcome because they had subsoil moisture,” he said.
Mr Harries said the next three weeks would be really critical for many farmers if there was no significant rain.
