Such are the rapidly deteriorating seasonal conditions that David Suttor from historic ‘Brucedale’ on the Sofala Road has just terminated a 250-acre wheat crop.

Instead of letting it go to head for the grain, he’s opted out of waiting until harvest and made round bales of hay.

The result is 1000 bales of wheaten hay that he describes as “better than having money in the bank”.

While Mr Suttor’s decisions means he will have dry feed should the worst-case drought scenario eventuate, many other farmers aren’t in the same position  at a time when forecasters are warning of El Nino conditions.

Mr Suttor opted to make hay on the back of three weeks of hot, dry and windy conditions, which had turned pastures from green to a straw-like yellow in the blink of an eye.

With 1100 hectares of prime farming land just 15 kilometres north of Bathurst where he runs predominantly sheep and some cattle, Mr Suttor said he baled the crop because he didn’t think it would yield much wheat.

“We got 1000 bales from my place and we have another 1000 bales on the block of ground Joseph Lenehan and I  sharefarm at Mount Pleasant,” he said.

“It was the same scenario – a wheat crop that wasn’t doing very well that was better off being made into hay.”

Mr Suttor said he plans to hold onto the hay.

“I plan to keep it because you just don’t know where the season’s going to go,” he said. “Joseph’s going to do the same, but it costs a fair bit to make it you know. The fuel’s expensive and there’s a lot of net wrap involved, as well the wear and tear on machinery.

“But saying that, I don’t think you can ever have enough hay stacked around the place. It’s better than money in the bank. You don’t have to go to town to get it.”

Mr Suttor said the threat of El Nino was very worrying.

“I’ve lightened stock numbers off and got rid of a lot of cows in case we don’t get rain,” he said. 

“At one stage I thought I’d done the wrong thing, but they say ‘sell and regret, but always sell’.

“It’s good to have feed, but water always becomes the big issue when we get prolonged dry spells.”