On the Monaro, after receiving three months of average rainfall, annual grasses and clovers had surged ahead, in some areas overtaking the reduced numbers of grazing stock available to eat them.

“Although the rainfall was nothing special, the cumulative impact had been good,” said Cooma district agronomist, Luke Pope.

In recent weeks locals have been the strongest bidders at the Cooma saleyards, buying just about anything to eat up the extra feed.

But an unseasonally warm succession of days, topping at 32C in Cooma a week ago, has now all but dried out the surrounding country.

Weeks of high growth that had used up a lot of the sub-soil moisture had contributed to this, Mr Pope said.

Most people were only at about 50 per cent stocking rates and last month many were still hand feeding.

Landmark’s Cooma branch manager, Miles Buchanan, said the situation had started going backwards at a rate of knots.

“We’re lacking surface water, there has been no run off to fill dams,” Mr Buchanan said.

Over the range, Tumut remains reasonably green, but west of Gundagai it had dried off a lot, said McAlister and Saunderson principal, Abb McAlister.

But there was still a lot of dry feed.

“We had good rain in early spring, but that cut out in the past month,” he said.

Dubbo is expected to endure its hottest November day in 140 years of temperature records on Friday with the thermometer tipped to hit 44 degrees Celsius.

The Land’s meteorologist, Don White, said this week’s heatwave would rival the November sizzlers of 2004, 1997 and 1982.

Tomorrow’s temperatures are tipped to hit 43C in Griffith, 42C in Wagga and Tamworth, and 35C on the tablelands at Orange.

The State’s hottest November temperature of 46C was recorded in Coonamble in 1969.