NAB Future Farmer Brad Keller shares his farm buying story

But the feeling didn't linger. The 27-year-old shearer, contractor and lamb trader does not indulge in self pity.

It was only after half an hour chatting about how he's been tackling the farm ownership challenge that Mr Keller revealed something remarkable.

"I tore my thumb off last year," he said, matter of factly.

Riding over rough ground, his quad bike flipped, the rollover bar amputating his right thumb near the palm.

The loss would be tough for most but more so for Mr Keller, who spends six months of the year shearing sheep.

He was injured on June 10 and, though the surgeon "didn't seem too impressed about it", back into the full swing of shearing that season.

"After the accident, the first thing I thought of was how to get back into shearing because that's a fairly big part of my income and I had sheep to look after," Mr Keller said.

"I set the handpiece up and just went in and held it every day to make sure the tendons weren't too sore in the fingers.

"As soon as I felt it was alright, I started shearing a couple of sheep and did the first full week's shearing in the first week of October 1."

Now, by his own reckoning, Mr Keller is just as quick with the shears as ever.

Based almost exactly halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide at Nhill, he juggles shearing flocks across the Wimmera with contract harvesting and lamb trading.

The shearing money covers living expenses and any breakdowns, the money generated from the lambs he fattens and trades is reinvested in growing numbers, and the contracting builds equity.

Every element is carefully managed and accounted for, impressing National Australia Bank Horsham agribusiness manager Tristan Monti and small business manager Debbie Shearer.

"The cashflow budgets and financials he was sending through were better than I've seen from people doing it for 10 or 15 years," Mr Monti said.

The banker said Mr Keller had been conservative with expected yields and prices, and was a prudent spender.

"He wasn't driving around in a new 300 series, he was driving an old beaten-up ute ... he's more interested in long-term growth than buying the shiny toys that he has the cash to pay for right now," Mr Monti said.

It all started with crutching the neighbour's sheep and grew to the purchase of Mr Keller's first six ewes and lambs during schoolies week at age 18.

When he was 25, a neighbouring block came up for sale, but short of equity, Mr Keller missed out.

"So, it sounds pretty silly, but I went and bought a header because I had the cashflow," he said.

"I bought a header to go contracting, bought a house in town and then started trading sheep even harder to try and push equity."

That $300,000 used New Holland CR98090 header with 45-foot flexi front and $200,000 house was followed up with extra sheep feeders, a hay rake, trailers and other farm equipment.

"Because I wasn't able to get a loan for the land, I put money towards my enterprise, which has grown so much over the last two years, I've been able to get that equity up there," he said.

"You don't let things fall back, you just keep pushing forward with the right mentality and the right people to talk to."

One of those people is his father, Ian Keller, who agists Mr Keller's ewes in return for labour.

"If I've got any questions, I'll give him a ring. We have a good yack about it and try to work something out," Mr Keller said.

"If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be doing all this."

Now, at 27, Mr Keller leases 275 hectares, has made handy profits trading 3000 lambs and growing lentils in the last 12 months, owns 200 crossbred ewes, contract harvests 1500-2500ha a year, and is focussed on buying his first farm.

Over the last 18 months, he's put in offers for eight properties but found it hard to compete with established landowners.

"If you're a young farmer, even though you might be able to get the money, we're still competing with blokes with bigger acres and we can't afford the same as they can," Mr Keller said.

His most recent offer was rejected on Wednesday.

"I was a little bit devastated because it blocks right up and it would finish out our home block off really well," Mr Keller said.

"But, on the other hand, I've got the money in the bank behind me so, when the next next block of land that comes up, I know I can come in running headfirst."

Mr Keller is the first to be approved for a NAB Future Farmer loan, which offers terms of up to 30 years and lower deposit or equity requirements.

READ MORE: Special NAB loans for first farm buyers

With all this behind him, Mr Monti said, somebody like Mr Keller would normally have been able to purchase a farm long before now. But times have changed.

Since the drought broke, price records for farms right across Australia have been breaking, too.

Just last week, Mr Monti said, a new benchmark was set at nearby Kaniva, with the price of land almost doubling to $11,000 an acre in less than 12 months.

He said young farmers had to make a lot of money, at top speed, if their equity growth was to keep up with the growth in sale prices.

"At half the price, it was impossible to get in and now it's just ridiculous," Mr Monti said.

It put immense pressure on young farmers and Mr Monti was doubly impressed by Mr Keller's self-discipline after he had pulled out of an auction, even before the price reached his bank-approved limit.

"Brad simply said he didn't want that debt level and he's a prime example of a very switched-on kid."