THE sky was overcast above Warren in central western NSW yesterday, and there was hope of rain overnight.

But for many farmers in the district, it is all too late.

For wheat and cotton farmer Greg Whiteley, 52, it doesn’t matter anymore if it rains all week. His 1500 hectares of wheat is dying in the paddock.

At this time of year, if things were going well, his fields would look like a lush green table top; instead, the cracks in the rich, grey loam soil are clearly visible and the wheat is yellow or dead.

Next to his failed wheat crop, the ground where he would have planted cotton is bare. And, although he continues to pay the state Government for his water entitlement, the irrigation channels are empty.

Mr Whiteley is the fifth generation of his family to farm in the area. In 2001, his son, Tim, finished university and came home to work on the farm.

“He hasn’t seen anything but drought,” Mr Whiteley said.

One or two years of drought were manageable, he said, “but then if you have five or six years in a row, you are chewing into your equity.

“This one is going to be pretty difficult to roll over, and I think I am fairly representative.”

Autumn brought good rains. The Whiteleys, like most other grain growers, planted big. “We had good prospective prices for our cereals,” he said.

“The long-term weather forecast was good. We were convinced we were going out into a La Nina, so everybody went to the races and tried to back the winner on the last race and it has come unstuck big time.

“It would be easy to throw my hands in air and take the generous package that John Howard announced.

“But if my great-grandfather or grandfather in the Depression had done that, I wouldn’t be here.

“If I didn’t have a 27-year-old son that is university-trained and working with me, it would be reasonably tempting.

“But he has put a lot into the operation the last seven years.”

Mr Whiteley admits he would reconsider leaving “before our assets were completely eaten”.

Last year, he qualified for exceptional circumstances drought funding, in the form of an interest-rate subsidy.

“That keeps them (their financial institution) off our back, but it doesn’t come up with the money to plant the crop, the $150,000 odd that it costs us,” he said.

The Whiteley farm, lies west of the Newell Highway, which runs from Goondiwindi to Tocumwal.

The highway is the dividing line this year between those crops that survived, to the east, and the disastrous season to the west.