The figures for crops in the eastern states, particularly in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria are striking, with NSW winter crop production tipped to slump a massive 46 per cent compared to last year.
The forecast NSW total winter crop for 2018-19, at 3.89 million tonnes, is barely 26 per cent of the size of the massive 14.78 million tonne crop produced by the state in 2010-11.
The “winter crop” includes major broadacre farm crops like wheat, barley, canola and oats.
With Australian farms growing in size and winter cropping a costly exercise, a dramatically smaller crop in major farming states will have a significant impact on farming revenue and subsequently, on regional economies.
The national figure is boosted by prospects in Western Australia, where the winter crop is forecast to rise 12 per cent to 16.32 million tonnes.
BESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswy But in eastern states the situation could in fact worsen, if spring is dry and doesn’t deliver much needed rain in NSW, Queensland and Victorian cropping regions.
The ABARES report said that in NSW and Queensland “most cropping regions” received unfavourable seasonal conditions earlier this year, which “curtailed planting late in the planting window and yields are expected to be generally well below average”.
In Western Australia, favourable spring conditions could boost production beyond that being forecast.” ABARES executive director, Steve Hatfield-Dodds, said well below average production was expected in NSW and Queensland because of unfavourable seasonal conditions.
“The very poor conditions in most cropping regions in New South Wales and Queensland have been partly offset by forecast above average yields in Western Australia, following favourable rainfall in late autumn and winter,” Dr Hatfield-Dodds said.
“Overall, this has resulted in ABARES revising down our current forecast by 12 per cent from the one we published in June.

BUCYRUS, KS (KCTV) — Kansas farmers have battled a drought for a majority of 2018 and through the state recently received large amounts of rain, they say, for some crops, it’s too little, too late.
Farmers say their corn suffered the most as some is currently only half the size it is supposed to be.
They say the drought will affect their overall production.
In an average year, Kansas farmers harvest 150 bushels of corn per acre.
Officials say the drought is not the worst one the state has experienced but farmers say the little rain they did get was spotty, making for an uneven harvest.
“It was just crazy you know.
My house, I would have an inch and a half, my brother lives down the road and would get nothing and that seemed to happen more than once,” farmer Ted Guetterman said.
He says the corn started to turn brown in July, something normally not seen until the fall.
While the corn at Guetterman Brothers Family Farm is suffering, the soybean and wheat crops are in such good shape that farmers say they do not need any more water.
We have a lot of technology here on the farm but that’s the one thing we can’t do is control the weather,” Guetterman said.

DOCTORS and nurses dragged out their boots and wore them to work last month, in a bid to help drought affected farmers.
Medical crews from Bathurst Base were joined by ancillary staff in “the wear you boots to work” fundraising event which raised $1,000.
Melody Cole, from Bathurst Base Hospital, who helped organise the day said staff at the hospital feel a strong sense of community and feel it’s important to assist anyone in need.
“We know farmers are struggling and we know despite relief efforts the long term recovery from this situation will take a long term solution,” she said.
“We want the local farming community to know we will assist wherever we can.” Ms Cole said not only did staff wear their boots to work, they also got busy in the kitchen whipping up a storm of cakes, slices and sandwiches holding a cake stall in the foyer of the hospital, which literally sold out.
Bathurst Base Hopsital’s General Manager, Brad Molenkamp thanked his staff for their efforts, and recognised the work Ms Cole invested in organising the event.
“She made the day happen,” he said.
Money raised on the day has been used to purchase Buy Local cards which will be distributed to farming families through the 2BS Thumps Up For Farmers appeal.
Natalie Pilato, producer at 2BS, said staff were overwhelmed with support received for the fundraiser.
“People have been so generous,” she said.

Syracuse, N.Y. — Even as a tropical storm bears down on Upstate New York, drought is worsening in some areas.
For the first time this year, a portion of Upstate New York has reached the "severe drought" stage, according to this week’s report by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The severe drought, which affects just 3 percent of the state, affects parts of Essex, Clinton and Franklin counties, at the top northeast corner of New York.
"Little or no rain and well above-normal (6 to 10 degrees) temperatures worsened conditions in Upstate northeastern New York," the report said.
The criteria for severe drought includes "crop or pasture losses likely, water shortages common, and water restrictions imposed."
In addition to the severe drought area, 13 percent of New York state remains in a moderate drought, the lowest of the four drought categories.
That area includes the Adirondacks and a small slice of Western New York.
Heavy rain is headed for Upstate New York early next week as a cold front drags in the remnants of Tropical Storm Gordon.
Up to 3 inches of rain could fall, especially in Western New York.
How much rain reaches the drought areas, and how much effect it will have, remains to be seen.

Parents have slogged through sleepless nights for generations and survived the exhaustion that comes with round the clock feeding.
For graziers Janice and Ray Nutt, that has been their experience this winter as they go above and beyond to ensure the welfare of their flock which includes lambs that have been orphaned during the drought.
"All our animals we know, and they are special to us, both Janice and myself love our animals, it is quite hard at the moment," Mr Nutt said.
Ironically, despite the drought, the prime lamb producers have managed a good season with 341 lambs born to 195 sheep.
"I made 40 jackets ready thinking we would have 40 pet lambs, all crocheted each night leading up to it.
About a jacket a night to be prepared for the cold," she said.
The lambs start off in the house where they are fed five times a day.
For the time being, their homes are wax sealed boxes.
The couple said intensive lambing like this was always time consuming, but the drought had made it that much more exhausting.
"It is hard when it is really frosty and cold and you put another layer on and you hope you get through, but it is a lovely time of year," Mr Nutt said.

Amid a precarious security situation in Afghanistan, the worst drought in recent history that hit two out of three provinces in Afghanistan in July, has destabilized the lives of tens of thousands of civilians, some of whom have already been displaced.
Families that fled to Herat are living in dire conditions in makeshift shelters, where they are exposed to the scorching sun and summer temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius.
Many families are subsisting on a single meal a day.
Many get by on just bread and water.
Herat has become the closest refuge for about 60,000 people, who have been displaced from their homes due to the drought.
We fled our homes because there was no water and it is the same here.
He lives in a makeshift shelter with his family after they were forced to leave their home in Badghis province.
But, despite the challenges, women like 57 year old Khanim Gul, who have been displaced several times, show remarkable resilience.
With loans from family members, he has set up a vegetable stall and sell onions and potatoes to the rest of the displaced community near his tent in Herat.
Instead of being a safe place for learning, schools in Afghanistan are increasingly turned into military, ideological and political battlefields.

PRESTON — According to the United States Drought Monitor, Franklin County is experiencing moderate drought.
Most of the state of Idaho is abnormally dry.
According to the Boise State Public Radio, the drought regions stretch along the bottom of the state and the tip of the Panhandle, including much of the Treasure Valley, the west-central mountains and the southeast corner of the state.
States experiencing the most significant droughts include Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Oregon and Utah.
Based on CO-OP Observer data, Preston sees an average of 14.83 inches of precipitation each year.
So far this year, 10.66 inches of rain has fallen, said Kevin Smith, of the National Weather Services office in Pocatello.
Preston, Weston and Dayton each have received between 10 percent and 25 percent of their normal precipitation over the past 90 days, contributing to the ongoing drought conditions, said Smith.
The last time Franklin County declared a drought emergency was in 2010, according to the Idaho Department of Water Resources.
That year, the snow-water equivalent from snowpack levels in the Bear River Basin were only 75 percent of average on May 10, and the stream flow forecast from the Bear River was expected to be only 40 percent of average.
The U.S. Drought Monitor is produced through a partnership between the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the USDA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

ISLE LA MOTTE, Vt. (WCAX) Cathy Tudhope’s summer has been a challenge.
"This is my eleventh week without water," Tudhope said.
Her well, which sits in a field next to her Isle La Motte house, is 15-feet deep and at least 90 years old.
It’s so shallow, the state doesn’t even recognize it as a well.
And Tudhope is not alone.
"People have always relied on them, but in a given dry year, which we have every five to seven years, sometimes they just stop producing," said Claude Chevalier of Chevalier Drilling.
Chevalier says his business has seen a 50 percent increase in customers hoping to have their shallow wells drilled deeper.
"When somebody is out of water, they need help immediately."
"You do what you have to do to get along," Tudhope said.
"I can’t wait to take a shower in my house," Tudhope said.

The Colorado River system’s ongoing 19-year drought could trigger unprecedented water rationing among its southern states by mid-2020, a new study warns.
The elevation of the most critical reservoir in the area—Lake Mead—could drop by 20 feet or more by mid-2020.
She said she expects the states to complete a “comprehensive, basinwide drought contingency plan before the end of this year.” According to the bureau, the lower basin of the river will have enough water to operate in normal conditions through calendar year 2019, but the possibility of water-use restrictions for the following year may be announced by next August.
Other studies have also raised the prospect of future problems with the river’s water supplies.
But another study, released by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), predicted that El Niño and its opposite weather feature—La Niña, which brings warmer, drier temperatures—will present mixed blessings in the future.
John Fasullo, an NCAR scientist who headed the study, called it a “weather whiplash” that could occur “particularly in the western U.S.” Ming Cai, a program officer at the National Science Foundation, which funded the NCAR study, said that by the end of the century, the added impacts of La Niña cycles on top of the growing temperature increases will leave California and other parts of the West “more vulnerable to severe droughts and widespread wildfires in the future.” According to computer projections, the combination means a La Niña event such as the one that occurred in 2011 could increase the chances of seasonal heat extremes in the southern half of the United States by as much as 30 percent.
Fasullo noted, however, that the study by itself does not predict whether the El Niño or La Niña cycles will continue in the future or, if they do, how big they might be.
“But we can say that an El Niño that forms in the future,” he said, “is likely to have more influence over our weather than if the same El Niño formed today.” Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from E&E News.
E&E provides daily coverage of essential energy and environmental news at www.eenews.net.
John Fialka E&E News

Drought conditions improved last week across wide portions of central and northern Missouri, according to the weekly drought monitor from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
For the past two weeks, severe drought conditions covered most of Cole County, while moderate and severe drought conditions each covered about half of Callaway County.
Extreme drought — the third most severe level of drought on the USDA’s four-level drought severity scale — covered small portions of northern Cole County, western Callaway County and northern Moniteau County.
This week, severe and moderate drought conditions still cover about half of Cole County each.
About the same portion of extreme drought covers northern Cole County as last week, the drought monitor shows.
The biggest improvement in the region may have been made in Osage County, where drought conditions no longer cover the county’s southeastern portion.
Over the past 30 days, precipitation has picked up locally, with portions of Central Missouri receiving 0.5-5 inches more rain than normal, according to National Weather Service data.
For most of the summer, exceptional — the most severe level on the USDA’s drought monitor — and extreme drought gripped northern parts of Missouri.
Drought conditions no longer cover some portions of northwestern Missouri.
Extreme drought conditions cover much smaller portions of northern Missouri than last week.