Grain and oilseed growers in northern NSW are looking to the skies and hoping the weather cooperates to produce a stand-out harvest this year. Agronomist Paul Nelson, based at Warialda between Moree and Glen Innes, said crops in the paddock were looking good and were the best he had seen in his 45 years in the industry.

"The crop is just spectacular," he said.

However, Mr Nelson said the threat of forecast rain was concerning.

"I've seen some big crops before, but I've never seen them make it to the silos," he said.

A bumper crop does not necessarily lead to a bulging bank balance either.

Mr Nelson said, despite some big yields, producers will earn $100-plus per tonne less than last year.

At nearby Delungra, mixed farmer Jock Barnett said, in the past, he'd had one of his best growing seasons after being spared the storm damage that some of his neighbours copped.

"Within 10 kilometres of our place there have been total crop losses from nasty storms," he said. 

"We certainly are lucky and we are looking at some good yields, probably some of the best yields we have had at our place."

Mr Barnett credited this season's success with a full moisture profile at sowing and consistent and timely rain throughout the growing season. 

Pest problems

This week, Mr Barnett was aerial spraying his crops to stave off heliothis moth ahead of the barley harvest in three weeks and the wheat harvest in December, adding to the cost of production.

He is not the only one in the region facing potential pest problems.

Moree pest controller and agronomist Tony Lockrey said a major challenge for croppers this season was feral pigs.

Mr Lockrey shot 300 pigs in a chickpea crop from a helicopter in two and a half hours.

"It's the worst pig season I have seen in my 18 years in the area," he said. 

Mr Lockrey said most years he would cull 4,000 feral pigs in a year, this year he has already culled 8,000.

"It's another cost that farmers don't need, and they are only finding the damage as they get into the crops with a header," he said.

Mr Lockrey said for the past eight weeks feral pigs have been nesting and bedding in crops. 

"It's very hard to shoot them in the crops as you don't have good visibility," he said.

Chickpeas are being harvested in northern NSW. (ABC News: Amelia Bernasconi)

Despite feral pigs plaguing croppers, Mr Lockrey said if rain stayed at bay they would be harvesting high-quality, high-yielding crops.

He described the operation as an "open-air casino". 

"We've put the crop in, we've taken the big gamble and we've added more chips along the way and now it's a matter of what we can get off," he said.

NSW grain and oilseed growers are forecast to produce 30 per cent more crop this year. (ABC News: Amelia Bernasconi)

Cost of frost

The latest analysis by Rabobank shows NSW is on track to produce two million extra tonnes of grain and oilseeds this year, with total production up by 30 per cent to almost 15 million tonnes. 

The national crop will be up slightly to 47.1 million tonnes, despite some heavy losses in the south where severe frost impacts have wiped out some crops and reduced yields.

"In southern NSW, Victoria and South Australia I would say half a million and up to a million tonnes of wheat will be lost to frost damage," Rabobank grain and oilseed analyst Vitor Pistoia said. 

Source - https://www.abc.net.au