Central Highlands farmers will face tougher growing conditions in 2021, if the Emerald region does not receive significant rainfall before the end of the year.
This comes after Fairbairn Dam hit a historic low on December 1, reaching 8.13 per cent capacity, the lowest it has been since its construction in 1972.
Fairbairn Dam is the second largest water scheme in Queensland after the Burdekin, feeding water into the Emerald Irrigation Scheme and the Nogoa Mackenzie Dam.
As the demand for water has grown in Emerald, producers in the region say water prices have skyrocketed and areas of prime agricultural land have not been planted due to the decreasing water supply.
Central Highlands Regional Council Mayor Kerry Hayes said with no significant inflow into the Fairbairn Dam over recent months restrictions were expected.
"Agriculture is our second largest industry and probably the most consistent and changing; it will be impacted the hardest if there's no significant inflow because it's the timeliness of the inflows that are probably just as important in terms of decision making," Cr Hayes said.
"For instance a low allocation, that's pretty hard to plan for a full crop and it puts you at higher risk, which people generally can't afford to do.
"Farmers have cut back on some of their inputs for the time being, but clearly they than have to live off this year's and perhaps last year's crops."
Cr Hayes said farmers were facing the difficult task of potentially having to ride through the next 18 months with low incomes.
He said if levels fell to the stage where it became problematic to get water out of the dam and into supply channels and the river, there would be further costs associated with pumping.
Cotton Australia Central Highlands regional manager Renee Anderson, Emerald, said growers in the region need significant falls in the next two or three weeks to consider planting.
"We're going to need some significant inflows into the catchment for anything to change in terms of irrigation water availability out of the Fairbairn Dam," Ms Anderson said.
"Central Highlands growers have just harvested a pretty good winter crop and most crops have done quite well, even though obviously they were very reduced in areas.
"It's been a tough few years now, so we've been on low or reduced allocations for four seasons now and we're really hoping this La Nina comes through because our broadacre cereal crops are desperately looking for rain."
Ms Anderson and her husband Bradley harvested a successful wheat and chickpea crop about a month ago but have not put in a summer crop.
"In terms of irrigation, it's predominantly just the permanent tree crops that have access to water and very, very limited short season crops," she said.
"Most people were hoping for some rain to put something in and then see how it went as a dry plant, but we obviously haven't had any decent falls.
"If we do get significant falls coming through in the next two weeks it's likely some people will probably put in some dryland crops to see how it goes through January and February."
Evergreen Farms manager Paul Wortley said water prices were extremely high and Evergreen had been unable to meet Sunwater's prices.
"We will be able to complete our harvest, but once the new year starts we will have to implement severe water rationing on the grape vines to keep going and hope that it rains," Mr Wortley said.
"It does impact slightly on the harvest but we do have sufficient water to get through the harvest. It is post-harvest in the extreme heat of January and February, which could damage the vines, if we do not have sufficient water.
"We'll start implementing rations and water restrictions on our vines to be able to water them as long as possible after the harvest."
Once the new year starts we will have to implement severe water rationing on the grape vines.
- Paul Wortley
Evergreen Farms is located between Emerald and the Fairbairn Dam and their main horticultural enterprise consists of Menindee seedless and Flame seedless table grapes.
Mr Wortley said deficit irrigating and the quality of the water can affect the development of their vines and the yield of the grapes.
"Restricting water and going into deficits impairs the root development and replenishment after harvest, which could impact significantly on the next crop if it goes on long enough," he said.
"It will probably get to the stage of being a choice to stop watering the older vines, or to keep your more productive vines going.
"We pump out water from the river, so we rely on the Fairbairn River, but another factor once the water gets this low is water quality."
A Sunwater spokesperson said they were working closely with their customers to deliver water in a way that minimises loss and maximises availability.
"Sunwater understands the significant pressure drought conditions are having on regional communities. We are hoping for much-needed rainfall in the coming summer season," the spokesperson said.
"The announced allocation for the Nogoa Mackenzie Water Supply Scheme for the 2020-21 water is, high priority 100 per cent and medium priority 0pc."
Sunwater said high priority allocations were typically used for the town's water supply and industrial use, where businesses pay a higher fee for more reliable water access.
"There are a number of large irrigators with these allocations in the Nogoa Mackenzie Scheme," the spokesperson said.
"Water allocations are set for the year and cannot decrease as dam capacity levels reduce. Should inflows occur however, allocations can increase (to a maximum of 100pc).
"Charges payable on the volume of water allocation owned go towards recovering these fixed costs which are incurred by Sunwater regardless of water usage."