Local agronomists and crop pathology experts are now warning farmers and landholders to make sure their crops are prepared for infections like stripe rust.

Department of Primary Industries (DPI) cereal pathology expert Steven Simpfendorfer said stripe rust "is a big one. We've already got it in wheat."

The disease appears as yellow spores of pustules that appear on the leaf surface and often arise during wetter than average conditions, according the Mr Simpfendorfer .

"It needs six hours of leaf wetness to get an infection event," he said.

"And it basically takes out the green leaves, and that reduces the yield.

"And so obviously the more rainfall you get the more infection events you get and you end up in problems."

This soaking of the leaves can occur as a result of both consistent lighter rains and heavier storms.

"You can get dews for a number of days following the rain and that can be quite conducive to getting infections as well," Mr Simpfendorfer said.

READ ALSO:

However, there are a number of wheat varieties that have greater tolerance of the disease than others, which Mr Simpfendorfer said farmers should be well-aware of.

Spraying fungicides at key growth stages is the next thing on the agenda for farmers, ahead of the increasingly wet months.

"It's about [doing] a two-spray program in susceptible varieties with fungicide to stop the top three leaves getting significant stripe rust infection."

Tamworth regional weather administrator Dave Farrenden, said there could also be a bit of waterlogging in some areas that could cause some problems.

"Because all the dams are at 100 per cent in the region, there could be some flooding especially if we get high [rainfall] totals," he said.

"[For example] because Chaffey [dam] is already full, there's nowhere for that water to go but downstream in the Peel."

Despite the risk of infection though, DPI Agronomist Loretta Serafin said most farmers in the Peel Valley "are hoping for a wetter than average Spring and Summer."

"And that's largely on the fact that we've got our winter crop in ... some of it is late, but we're in a pretty good position," she said.

"If it continues to be wet that will bring opportunities for some additional summer crop planting,"

The only downside to the good upcoming growing conditions to summer seems to be that there will be some stiff competition for seed supply, according to Ms Serafin.

"There's going to be a very large planting of sorghum across Northern NSW and Central NSW and that's going to put pressure on seed supply," she said.

"And so for our growers, who are going to be later planting than positions like Moree, that means we need to get organised a bit earlier."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: