Even so, her farm will not have a winter crop this year, and many neighbours are faring worse.

"They're exhausted - it's gut-wrenching and it's horrible to look at the landscape," she said.

Record heat and widening drought

NSW received just half its typical rain in the first half of 2018, making it the driest start to any year since 1986. It was also the state's hottest on record for the period for daytime temperatures.

Karl Braganza, head of the Bureau of Meteorology's climate monitoring, said that consistently low rainfall had set in over NSW since April 2017. January-July rainfall averages were now running at about 40 per cent of the norm.

As of the end of July, about 84 per cent of NSW was in the midst of the lowest 10 per cent of rainfall for the period. Only the Federation Drought of 1902, with 97 per cent, and 1965 with 88 per cent, had larger areas with such rainfall deficiencies, Dr Braganza said.

The near-term outlook was also of concern, with temperatures in August looking like they will be about 3 degrees above average, with little rainfall relief expected, he said.

The bureau last week said chances are diminishing for average rainfall for the August-October period for much of the country.

Ms Kirkby said her husband's family had been farming her region for a century, and "it's never been as dry as it is now".

With soil moisture levels so low, it will take above-average rains to restore productivity in many areas, he said.

Aid hopes

David Mailler, who runs a small sheep farm at Uralla, near Tamworth, said the government's package was "well balanced" but his main concern was that it was "accessible and equitable" to farmers.

"We're fast running out of grass and feed," Mr Mailler said, adding that the price of fodder had "skyrocketed".

He supported the funds that will be made available for mental health services and also for innovation projects to help farms recover when the drought ends.

"Anything that makes it more difficult to accept a hand-up does detract from [any assistance]," Mr Mailler said.

Research published on Monday in the Medical Journal of Australia found younger farmers, particularly under 35, were more likely to struggle with personal drought-related stress.

“The incidence of psychological distress was also significantly lower for participants aged 55 or more. The incidence of [stress] was lower among retired than employed participants, and both PDS and psychological distress were lower among ‘prosperous’ or ‘very comfortable’ than for less financially secure respondents,” lead author Emma Austin, from the Centre for Water, Climate and Land at the University of Newcastle, and the researchers wrote.

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Mr Mailler, who formerly ran a 6400-hectare farm just north of the NSW border in Goondiwindi, said it is hard for many city residents to understand the struggles many farmers are going through.

After a poor autumn, many in the state's north hadn't bothered with a winter crop.

"We've never had a season in which you couldn't plant," Mr Mailler said.