The biggest lessons to be learned this year were the critical importance of fallow management in soil moisture conservation, the role of stubble retention and no-till in achieving this, and the importance of early sowing.

NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) pulses and oilseeds technical specialist, Don McCaffery, said no worthwhile follow-up rain fell across the bulk of the cropping belt since early July, except for the Liverpool Plains, where useful falls came in August.

The NSW winter crop harvest could be worse than the 2006 harvest, when only around 2.05 million tonnes of wheat came off.

"In more normal seasons NSW would produce between six and eight million tonnes of wheat," Mr McCaffery said.

"The canola area for harvest has also almost halved from what was sown.

"Crops in more western areas began failing as early as July and in many crops, there is not even enough bulk to make hay.

"Supplies of seed for next year’s sowings will be a big issue."

Some horticultural and tree crops could soon be permanently lost along the Murray-Darling Basin.

There is less water in the system than at this time last year and NSW DPI’s director of intensive industries development, Delia Dray, said many producers will facee the hard decision to sacrifice blocks.

The unknown is how long this will continue, so when recovery starts, it will take trees considerable time to grow back to bearing fruit, Ms Dray said.