THIS weekend's predicted rainfall is not going to dampen the spirits of many of the region's farmers.
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Despite the threat of the rain downgrading crops, many in the industry can see the positive sides of late season rain.
Among them is Tamworth farmer Terry Blanch, who believes "the media has hyped up the threat of rain to a point where it has made a mountain out of a mole hill".
"From our perspective, we would have loved to have had a rain event that they are telling is coming this weekend about three weeks ago, because that would have been worth real money, while this one could cost real money," Mr Blanch said.
"However, that's farming, it's not going to affect everybody and despite what is getting around, it's not all doom and gloom."
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The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) is predicting a wet weekend for Tamworth, including a 90 per cent chance of 10 to 25mm on Saturday and a 90 per cent chance of 15 to 30mm on Sunday.
"What will be, will be," Mr Blanch said.
"It's how it goes for farmers, it's like a merry-go-round that you can't get off and like many others I wouldn't want to be doing anything else."
Gunnedah agronomist Jim Hunt said he didn't expect too many farmers would be heavily impacted by the predicted rain.
"There really is only a proportion of the crops that will be susceptible to weather damage and there is still fair bit of crops that will benefit from this kind of rain," Mr Hunt said.
"It really comes down to the stage of the crop and when it was planted, so some will be really wanting it while others won't.
"It's really hard to say one district may fair worse than another because the rain that's expected is coming from storms and it then tends to be inconsistent.
"However, I would say there is a fair proportion of crops in our district that are not at that stage and aren't susceptible."
The HuntAg agronomist said most producers had taken precautions to help limit the impact of rain.
"Some people have got a wide range of of planting windows and some of the stuff they planted early will be on the maturing end of things now, and this kind of weather could downgrade some of those crops," he said.
"That's why we recommend a wide sowing window to farmers to help them try and mitigate that risk."
Billy Jupp
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
