Farmers are expecting to cost of harvesting to rise, with contractors set to pass on the costs of navigating regional roads damaged by prolonged wet weather and flooding.
The triple whammy of high fuel prices, expensive detours and extra wear-and-tear on their machines are adding up to tens of thousands of dollars.
Wiley Roll, a contract harvester in Narromine, west of Dubbo, said the road damage and closures in the region had left him driving up to 200 kilometres out of the way.
He said fuel costs were double what they were last year, and the detours were proving expensive.
Having to use flood-damaged roads had its own drawbacks as well.
"We're carting wide gear on trucks, five-metre loads," Mr Roll said.
"With all the potholes, the trucks don't have room to move around them, and that does damage to the trucks as well."
He said the extra wear and tear might result in tens of thousands of dollars of damage to his machinery during harvest.
Jack Ryan runs Western Farm Machinery in Warren, which has experienced major flooding several times this year.
He said it was not just the fuel but also the additional labour costs.
"You have to pay someone to drive [these detours]," Mr Ryan said.
He has seen the toll the conditions have taken on the machinery too.
"There's lots of things going wrong with the machinery … so it's a higher expense to operate," Mr Ryan said.
Contractors said farmers would have to absorb the cost of the additional challenges imposed by the deteriorating road network.
NSW Regional Transport and Roads Minister Sam Farraway said an additional 80 full-time staff would be deployed in the state's north-west, central-west and far-west to repair potholes during harvest and through Christmas.
"We're going to make sure on our state roads and highways that we keep them open, fill the potholes and keep the supply chains strong," he said.
"If there are potholes on a local road network, ring [the] council, take a photo because this is how we're going to deploy crews to where they need to be."
