DESPITE the dry start to the 2022 cropping season in South Australia, the state’s agricultural sector has remained confident with a majority of farmers expecting conditions to either improve or remain stable in the next few months.
A Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey released on June 14 found the confidence of South Australian farmers has held firm during the last quarter, as 23 per cent of the state’s agricultural producers expected conditions to improve within the next 12 months, as compared to the pervious survey at 25 per cent.
The negative opinion of the industry only came to 13 per cent down from last quarter’s 20 per cent, which saw net confidence edge slightly upward.
South Australia Rabobank regional manager Roger Matthews said in the year or La Nina, South Australian farmers would expect to have seen more rain during the summer.
“The rain we received during summer fell mainly in the pastoral areas and on the Eyre Peninsula,” he said, while the Yorke Peninsula, the mid north, the Mallee and south east of the state have all experienced quite a dry summer and autumn,” Mr Matthews said.
“Up until the rain which fell in late May, the rainfall in South Australia has been patchy so far this year.”
Completed last month, the survey showed most farmer’s confidence was driven by the continuous rise of commodity prices.
Overall, the latest survey found 37 per cent of South Australian farmers were expecting their incomes to increase in the coming 12 months and 45 per cent to have similar returns to the previous year.
A total of 14 per cent were predicting a decline in incomes.
