The State Government revised its drought figures as a result of improved pastoral and water conditions measured in October.

Now, the scale of the drought has eased by almost 6.5 per cent – a situation that will only be helped by falls of up to 25mm at the weekend.

The latest figures showed 62.8 per cent of NSW was in drought (down from 69.2 per cent), while 17.4 per cent was marginal (up from 16.8) and 19.8 per cent was satisfactory (up from 14).

Armidale was one of the boards to improve. Divisions A and D and part of Divisions B and C have improved, meaning the whole board is now marginal.

The plight of graziers was helped over the weekend with falls of as much as 20mm across the Armidale board.

Glen Innes received 25mm in the 24 hours to 9am yesterday – a welcome fall in a board still gripped by drought.

The Moree and Narrabri boards – both drought declared – received falls of about 5mm in the same 24-hour period over the weekend.

Parts of the Tamworth board, which remains satisfactory in the November classifications, recorded some useful falls, with the city itself recording 10mm at the airport.

Nundle recorded 12mm but the rain is unlikely to translate into a major boost at Chaffey Dam, which remained at 98.8 per cent of capacity yesterday.

Minister for Primary Industries Ian Macdonald said while the October rains were welcomed, they had been patchy and more would be needed.

“We have to remember, this highly variable rainfall of recent months must be seen in the context of the seven-year drought many of our farmers have experienced, which combined with record high temperatures, has severely stressed water supplies,” he said.

“Although this is good news for some farmers, we will need several years of above average rainfall to enable farmers across the board to recover, and for those long-term water deficits to be removed.”

Winter crop production is forecast at 8.63 million tonnes from 5.08 million hectares. Harvesting of faba bean, barley, wheat and canola has started in the north, and harvest is under way in parts of the central and southern areas.