Beef up, rest cop a caning

RECORD beef prices have proved a silver lining for drought-stricken graziers in the Far North but other commodities are trailing behind, tempering overall confidence in the rural sector.

The latest Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey has revealed nearly half of North Queensland farmers expect conditions to worsen in the next 12 months, up from a third who held that view in the previous survey, and 27 per cent had a stable outlook while 23 per cent believed conditions would improve.

An average 1000 primary producers across a range of commodities and geographical areas are polled for the quarterly survey, which monitors outlook and sentiment in Australian rural industries.

Rabobank North Queensland regional manager Trent McIndoe said beef prices, trading at record levels across some categories, underpinned confidence among graziers who were otherwise doing it extremely tough.

“We have also seen some orders for live export include lighter cattle, with some specs relaxed to as low as 220kg, which has helped producers lighten off some of their stock in this strong market,” he said.

Sugarcane farmers’ shortterm prospects are less promising, with the cane price sitting only marginally above the cost of production at $36-38 per tonne and showing no signs of strengthening.

That’s Gordonvale fourthgeneration grower Richard Hesp’s biggest concern heading into the next year.

“The current price is low but not as low as I’ve seen,” he said.

“We went through a period of $250 per tonne of sugar but that was a number of years ago and our costs were lower.

“We’re always changing and trying to cut our costs (to cope) and the forward pricing is helping even our price out a bit. Most growers have the ability to forward price to some degree.

“Until they resolve the sugar marketing dispute, we can’t forward price into 2017.”

Mr Hesp is also battling Yellow Canopy Syndrome, which causes root rot and yellowing leaves, and has infected up to 60 per cent of cane in some blocks. That’s coupled with below-average yields forecast this season due to a dry monsoonal period.

Almost two-thirds of farmers indicated they were strategically preparing for drought by selling livestock, upgrading water infrastructure and storing fodder.