Confidence among South Australia's farmers has returned to positive territory for the first time in almost two years, according to new data from Rabobank.
Results from the bank's latest Rural Confidence Survey, released yesterday, showed more SA farmers were optimistic than pessimistic about the sector's immediate future, a threshold not crossed since June 2022.
Reduced seasonal concerns and some commodity price relief are being attributed to the turnaround.
Net confidence this quarter reached 19 per cent, a turnaround from -31pc last survey.
Taking into account the views of 1000 farmers from across the nation, the survey found 35pc of SA farmers were hopeful agricultural economic conditions would improve in the coming year (up from 15pc), while only 16pc anticipated conditions would worsen (down from 45pc).
The remaining 49pc expect things to remain stable.
"Last year, farmers were grappling with depressed markets and uncertainty around how El Nino would play out," Rabobank regional manager for South Australia Roger Matthews said.
"Confidence started to rise at the end of 2023 thanks to more positive market signals - especially for beef - and with an early start to what shaped up to be a strong grain harvest.
"Rain events through summer have helped to top up sub-soil moisture in many grain- growing regions in SA.
"This sets up grain growers to plan more optimistically for the upcoming planting period for winter crops, although confidence is tempered by expectation grain prices will remain under pressure."
Much of the optimism in the livestock industry is coming from the beef sector, with market improvement the main cause of positivity.
Sheep producers are less bullish about markets improving, but are still more optimistic than last quarter.
Mr Matthews said restocker interest from the eastern states following favourable seasonal conditions has increased cashflow for beef producers.
"Although sheepmeat prices haven't held up as well as cattle prices, they are still outperforming the lows of last year," he said.
"The beef and sheep price outlooks are more optimistic for the year ahead, and summer rain has helped to bolster pasture feed supplies.
"It's safe to say graziers are confident the downward trend of low prices has ended, and improvements are more likely."
Less farmers expressed concerns about drought and interest rates, though more nominated input costs and inflation as reasons for pessimism.
Global factors were also mentioned consistently, including overseas markets/economies (38pc of farmers had a pessimistic view on the year ahead, up from 17pc), the impact of war (11pc up from 3pc) and the rising Australian dollar (16pc up from 1pc).
Investment appetite in farming enterprises remained basically unchanged with 19pc planning to increase investment and 16pc still planning to decrease investment.
"Although overall investment intention levels haven't increased, the enthusiasm of farmers to invest in a wide range of areas across their business is the result of improved confidence in seasonal and economic drivers," Mr Matthews said.
"SA farmers are focusing on efficiency gains as they continue to grapple with labour shortages," he said.
"There's clear intention from farmers to improve the efficiency of their enterprises, by investing in things like fencing, laneways and automated stock handling equipment."
