One of the district's major hay producers is flagging a critical shortage of hay as farmers stare down the barrel of a hard, hungry winter for drought-affected stock.
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Feuerherdt Pastoral Company's Stephen Feuerherdt said hay was thin on the ground, with farmers forced to go further to source it and pay more for the precious fodder.
"At the moment, we've sold out of everything," said Mr Feuerherdt, who runs a mixed farming operation and hay contracting business with his wife Sharon and son Josh at Roseview, Culcairn.
"I would say it's one of the toughest hay markets I've seen - I personally think it's worse than last year."
Mr Feuerherdt said one of the biggest concerns was "there is such a long way to go until we make hay again".
"I don't know where it's going to come from," he said.
"Normally we'd be selling hay to June or July; we'd be right."
About a month ago, Mr Feuerherdt said there'd been a flurry of calls from farmers snapping up the last of his straw bales.
"We baled a lot of straw last year - we baled everything," he said.
"People are getting worried - one customer took the last load of silage and said he'd have to offload cows and just keep the calves."
I would say it's one of the toughest hay markets I've seen ... I just don't know where it's going to come from.
- Stephen Feuerherdt
Mr Feuerherdt said it was imperative to get a crop in the ground to have something to bale towards the end of the year.
"It's lucky we had so much canola hay last year - there would have been a lot of people in strife otherwise," he said.
"There's still a good window this year - we've sown crops for hay until the end of May, going into June - as long as we get a spring at the other end."
Prices for hay have sky-rocketed as the drought shows no sign of relenting.
"(Across the board) straw has gone from $100 a tonne last year to $150 a tonne; cereal hay is up from $150 to $350 a tonne; and canola hay is at $300 a tonne," Mr Feuerherdt said.
Although he added it had been "cruel" to see some of the prices unscrupulous traders had squeezed out of farmers desperate to find feed for hungry stock.
For now farmers are still sticking to their normal cropping schedule, according to Mr Feuerherdt who plans to have about 1750 hectares under crop this season.
"We've got a lot of country (about 300 hectares) earmarked for oats and ryegrass for hay and feed," he said.
"The rest will be sown to canola, wheat and barley - in saying that, if it doesn't rain we'll drop off on the canola and sow more barley and wheat.
"Some years you just have to bale everything - we're not afraid to cut it and bale it."
Down the road Walla's Jason Schilg is busy feeding stock, carting water and cleaning out dams while he looks to the skies for a break.
He "not that panicky" yet and said there was still time to make decisions about what crops to sow.
"The canola will be a bit iffy if there's no rain by Anzac Day," he said.
"We'll just wait and see."