‘It's very serious': Australia's farmers pensive after a long, dry winter.

For the next two weeks, Phillip Alcorn will have his eyes glued to the sky, and the weather forecast.

Phillip Alcorn in a field of canola on his property near Harden. 

If there is no rain in the next two weeks, the Harden farmer's canola crop will be a write-off. 

"It's very serious," says Mr Alcorn, who has been farming for 25 years in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales. 

"This is up in the top couple of years for toughness," he says. "That is a direct impact of the dry," he says. 

Read Judith Ireland’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “‘It's very serious': Australia's farmers pensive after a long, dry winter.”