"WILD" Bill Ellis lay in his bed listening to the rain on his roof early on this morning.

The first thing he did when he put on his slippers was check his rain gauge to find it 7.5 millimetres full.

"There's not much in it," he said.

Mr Ellis is among a handful of Southern Downs farmers who wait with bated breath for more rain as his crops hang in the balance.

He took the "gamble" of planting seed in the last two weeks with rumours of rain in the air.

His six paddocks of oat seed had their appetite whet with eight millimetres of rain last night.

But the need for more rain is more crucial that ever now that the seed may have germinated.

"The rain needs to go deep enough into the soil so the plant can get its roots down, otherwise it will die," Mr Ellis said.

Like other farmers in the region, Mr Ellis is hoping for another eight millimetres or more.

If the paddocks grow, Mr Ellis will use the valuable crop to strip feed his cattle.

He said the extra food would help him keep his cattle in good condition throughout the drought.

"I will put the electric fence across the paddock and give them so much each day and then I hope to bale it up or I will head it and keep the seed," he said.

While Mr Ellis has had to sell some of his beasts, he is committed to keeping check on the ones he is still grazing.

Despite being a more valuable crop, Mr Ellis decided to plant oats in the hope of making hay.

But he said other producers were planting barley, which grows more quickly.

"These things just happen you have to take each day as it comes," he said.

"It's always and gamble. You win some you lose some."

Mr Ellis said he is hoping for more rain in the next couple of days.