THE Federal Government’s stimulus package gave rise to a 20-year high in machinery and infrastructure spending on-farm, as farm debt increased by an expected five per cent, according to information from this morning’s ABARE Outlook 2010 conference.
New cropping equipment topped the list of popular investments, followed by new technologies in fertiliser, soil, irrigation and fodder management.
These high levels of investment were also a response to improved cash flow from 2007-08, particularly for dairy farms, as farmers looked less towards expanding land assets and more towards improving practices on what they already owned.
However, this year broadacre farm performance in general was expected to take a walloping, down from an average cash income of $76,000 to $64,000, due mainly to reduced crop production, lower grain prices, and a stagnant cattle market particularly in NSW and Queensland.
On the bright side, farms in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania were all expected to increase their cash flow this season due to improved conditions, while West Australian farms would drop slightly from their historically high levels.
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