At this time of year, Nick Turner and other irrigators in the New South Wales Central West would normally be flat out harvesting their summer crop. 

Instead, prolonged flooding in the Lachlan River last year meant they could not even get one in the ground.

"There was just really a lack of time to get that crop planted," Mr Turner, the chairman of Jemalong Irrigators near Forbes, said.

"Where the flooding was bad, it was horrific. There's no doubt about that."

The NSW Department of Primary Industries said flooding during spring and summer last year caused at least $466 million in on-farm damages across the Central West and Riverina.

The damage bill, which the DPI considers to be an underestimate, includes $97 million from infrastructure, $273 million in lost crops, and $67 million in pasture losses.

Across the flood plain of the Lachlan River, fences remain flattened with many of those still standing full of debris from the overland flow.

"People are just trying to get their farm operational," Mr Turner said.

"To get back to where we were pre-flood will take years."

Damaged irrigation pumps and channels, and ground too sodden to drive tractors and other machinery on also hindered summer production.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) said summer cropping across the state was down 19 per cent on the previous year because of the flood impact.

Key summer crops like cotton, sorghum, and rice are all down on the previous year because of flooding in the Central West and the Riverina.

Despite this, ABARES is forecasting the state-wide summer crop will still be well above the 10-year average due to good conditions for those farmers who did manage to sow.

Renewed sense of optimism

Mr Turner said most farmers were putting the summer behind them and had managed to get their flood-damaged farms operational ahead of the winter cropping season.

"There has been some reasonable rain during the month of March following on from the big floods we had in November," he said.

It has also been full steam ahead downstream at Lake Cargelligo, where the recent rain has given growers the confidence to plant a big winter cropping program.

"This is a nice start to kind of kick things back into gear after a tough year," agronomist Emma Ayliffe said.

"We've gone from extreme drought to extreme wet, so just somewhere in the middle would be awesome."

'Exceptional' period ahead

Favourable winter cropping conditions, which includes sowing wheat, barley and canola, is also aligning with historically strong international prices.

"It is really an exceptional time period," ABARES chief executive Jared Greenville said.

While the next harvest is not expected to reach the near-record production of the previous few years, another above-average season would be the fourth in a row for the state.

"Even getting three years in a row is very uncommon. I think we've had three years in a row just three times in the historical record," Mr Greenville said.

With the next harvest to begin towards the end of the year, flood-affected irrigators are hopeful they can turn things around.

"Everything is lining up quite positively at the moment," Mr Turner said.

Source - https://www.abc.net.au