Heavy rain has dealt vegetable farmers another "kick in the guts" after successive floods and storms, but growers are determined to sow their winter crops.
Ex-tropical cyclone Alfred dumped hundreds of millimetres of rain across the Lockyer Valley in southeast Queensland from Sunday, inundating the towns of Laidley and Grantham.
Farmers near Laidley Creek, which peaked above a minor flood level of five metres, were in "for a hell of a ride", Lockyer Valley Growers Association president Michael Sippel said.
The rain gouged paddocks that were ready for planting, leaving farmers to spend coming weeks levelling out their top soil and sowing on other parts of their properties.
"It's sad, but we're pretty well-versed in this now," Mr Sippel told AAP.
"Since 2011, we're just getting disaster after disaster.
"The climate is definitely changing ... it's feast or famine and it never used to be like that."
The Lockyer Valley is a fertile growing region for vegetables, such as lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, pumpkins and potatoes.
The rain may delay planting of winter crops for some weeks, but vegetable prices shouldn't be affected, Mr Sippel said.
Growers were instead increasingly concerned about the surging costs of farming and losses from wild weather.
"It's a real kick in the guts they don't need," Mr Sippel said.
"The cost to farm now is exorbitant, you can't have a loss.
"And if you do have a loss, it doesn't cost you $10,000 anymore, it's $100,000 or it's a million."
Mr Sippel called for government disaster assistance to kick in quickly to help with planting and extra labour costs.
Mixed cropping farmer Mitch Brimblecombe said there was some erosion and water damage across his property at Forest Hill.
He prepared for the rain by clearing drains and would pump excess water into his dams.
"It's a bit of wait and see - at this stage my farm hasn't got too much crop loss," Mr Brimblecombe said.
"We do have some earthworks to do, some creek banks to fix and fields to level, so there's a bit of work ahead of us."
Flooding rain in the Tweed Valley, in northern NSW, was likely to destroy soybean crops, while sugarcane growing on low-lying plains was inundated.
Cane grower Sandra Hawken said many properties had been without power since Wednesday, but clean-up had begun.
"The next thing will be to wait for the water to go down," Ms Hawken said.
"It will take a long time for it to dry out. It's just the way it is."
