Farmers in the region are continuing to struggle with the Hastings River flow dropping to a point where farmers are now unable to irrigate from the river.
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The cut off by the Department of Water is to protect environmental flow and guarantee domestic use.
River flow has dropped below 20 megalitres per day.
This is is the first time since January 2003 the trigger point has been reached.
"Cattle will now have to be totally hand fed as there will be no pasture growth without irrigation or rain," Brombin farmer Leo Cleary said.
Cereal crops in Victoria and Southern NSW are being cut for hay which is being sent to drought-affected areas including the Mid-North Coast.
Mr Cleary received the first delivery of hay for milking herd this morning (August 27) from Cobar in the central-west of NSW.
The burden of the movement of fodder for drought-affected stock has been eased by a 50 per cent subsidy on transport cost by the NSW Government.
Port Macquarie is currently experiencing its driest year on record and there is little chance of a reprieve, according to the Bureau of Metereology (BoM).
Senior climatologist for the BoM, Blair Trewin, said up until the end of July there had been 387.6mm of rain, breaking the previous January-July record low of 458.2mm set in 2014.
People are getting pretty desperate.
- Ben Tassell
And the BOM seasonal climate outlook is not promising.
"It indicates a 60-70 per cent chance of below average rain for the August-October period in the region," Mr Trewin said.
Farmer Ben Tassell from Bellangry also runs a livestock carrying business.
"People are getting pretty desperate, they are having to offload and cut into their herd more than they would like to," Mr Tassell said.
"People cannot run the numbers that they have previously, they have to make the decision to lighten off to send to an abattoir or saleyards."
Mr Tassell said that there was still money to be made in selling cattle.
"In previous droughts there has been a different scenario of having to sell cattle for no money or no return whatsoever," he said.
"People are getting a reasonable price at the moment."
But if things don't improve the situation could be dire.
"Down here on the coast we have never had to worry about water but this year it is an issue," Mr Tassell said.
"With the limited amount of water we now have it is a bit scary that in another month when we get some pretty hot weather and if we don't have a significant rain event the water is going to disappear."
