Farmers across the state have been doing it tough with three years of drought, empty dams and starving stock, but how things have changed.

Well above average rainfall in the region so far this year has buoyed farmers' hopes and transformed the landscape.

READ ALSO: Mountain Meats Bathurst embracing click and collect service

Currently 76.8 per cent of the Central West is no longer in drought while in the Central Tableands it's a little lower at 31.1 per cent, data from the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) shows.

At Turondale north of Bathurst, Mal and Jodie Healey have green paddocks for their superfine merino and beef cattle.

"It's as good as I've seen it in a long time," Mr Healey said.

"The drought has been broken where we are."

But while the rain is falling and the dams are full, high stock prices and a lack of cash-flow after the drought are preventing the Healeys from buying up now that times are looking good.

"Breeding back up is our theory. I can't see the point in buying a $300 sheep to cut $20 worth of wool," Mr Healey said.

"We've got 2500 ewes to lamb next month so we'll just try to stock up that way."

The couple said the rainfall has definitely boosted their spirits.

"We were just looking at a photo from Christmas and now you wouldn't think it was the same dam as all the waters are running over," Mr Healey said.

At Matt and Kristen Smith's beef cattle property south of Dubbo, fodder crops are chest-high and dams are overflowing

"It's fantastic, it's hard to describe, it kind of feels surreal," Mr Smith said.

"The three years previous were so horrendous that you couldn't imagine it'd be like this.

"We haven't had a crop for three years."

Like the Healeys, the couple can't afford to restock.

"We're only at 30 per cent of our carrying capacity," Mr Smith said.

"We've got three properties and one is completely destocked because we can't afford to restock.

"It's tough to watch all the grass go to waste."

Despite the lack of cattle, the couple are looking at it as an opportunity to let their land regenerate.

In the Orange LGA, 100 per cent of the land is still classed by the DPI as drought-affected.

NSW Farmers Association Orange branch chair Graham Brown said drought recovery in some areas had not been great so far.

"We still need a significant period of wet weather," he said.

"By October, if we don't have at least 50 per cent in our flood mitigation dams then there would be some irrigation water available for irrigators, but it'd mean we'd need another wet year to follow."

READ ALSO: Letter | Here's my case for a new CBD link to ease Bathurst's traffic squeeze

With a forecast for a wet spring, Mr Brown is hopeful that will lead to good in-flows into dams.

"We're still a long way from having that water table filled up," he said.