Kate and Steve Stokes' 50,000-acre Mulga Downs property, just north of the NSW border near Lightning Ridge, has more water than they can use.

A free-flowing uncapped bore, dug out in 1896, cascades clear water at 1600 litres per minute all day, every day.

But it is in the wrong place and it flows away from the property through a 60km long bore drain bypassing much of the land where their stock feed.

"It's a good source of water but it just follows the lay of the land," Ms Stokes told AAP.

"We want to cap and pipe it and put troughs in, and make ourselves more drought tolerant and sustainable ... it would save a lot of water too."

Federal government subsidies for farmers wanting to better control the bores on their land have been available for decades but farmers must first find the money themselves, a difficult task in the middle of a drought.

More than 500 bores and 6500km of bore drains across drought-stricken Queensland and NSW must be re-drilled and controlled if landholders are to put the water to better use.

Groundwater from the Great Artesian Basin, Australia's largest underground water source, flows under more than 20 per cent of the country but much of it is lost when allowed to flow freely through bores.

AgForce policy manager Dale Miller says asking farmers to stump up the funds after enduring six years of drought is a big ask.

Dr Miller says farmers wanting to take advantage of water sources already on their land have been met by a lack of government funds and slow-moving approval processes.

"This current phase of the initiative is over a two-year period and effectively we're halfway through that time but we're yet to see much happen on the ground," he said.

"What we need is firm funding commitments from the federal and state governments going forward."

Australian Associated Press