00:01It's been wonderful. We've seen some soaking rain across a large part of southern and central
00:08western New South Wales. Out in the west, some of the heaviest rainfall totals that we've
00:13been hearing about are more than 100 millimetres near Mullamin. Through the mixed farming and
00:18cropping country, the rainfall totals were between 50 and 75 millimetres of rain. Then
00:24through the southern slopes, which has been very dry in central west, there were reports
00:29of 145 millimetres between Temora and Grenfell and more than 100 millimetres at Cowra over
00:36the past 48 hours. So it's certainly been welcomed by many farmers who've been experiencing dry
00:42conditions. Yeah, so as you say, it has been very dry in southern New South Wales. What
00:46sort of a difference will this rain make there? Well, it's certainly not drought breaking, but it
00:52has lifted spirits. About half of New South Wales has been drought affected. And what that has meant
00:59for farmers in recent months is that they've been hand feeding livestock. There's been some
01:06producers who've taken the steps to reduce their stock numbers or de-stock, take animals off their
01:12property. And water has become a key concern for many people and they've been carting water to empty
01:18dams and even tanks for their house water. So this rain has made a big difference there. Those falls of
01:25100 millimetres or more have run water into dams. And that means that people will be able to take
01:30a little break from that hard work of carting water, that animals won't be getting bogged as
01:35they go down to get a drink. In speaking with one grazier from the far west of New South Wales
01:41near Hay,
01:42he said that even after the sort of 26 to 85 millimetres he'd seen across various parts of his property,
01:49that the trees even looked a bit greener and that the native shrubs like saltbush that the animals
01:56grazed there would also likely get a real boost from this rain. He said that that meant for many
02:02people they would be able to put off making the hard decision to reduce their stock numbers even
02:09further. In the cropping country it's also pretty significant because although it's not enough rain,
02:16it will mean that it gives them some hope in terms of being able to get a start and sow
02:20their winter
02:21grain crops which traditionally happens around autumn. So most people pretty happy to see the puddles
02:27around us. Thanks, Emily.
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