Month-In-Review-March-2015

Month in Review
March 2015
commodity price. There have also been a number of
other farms sold, such as a 50 hectare farm south
of Macksville for $460,000 including the crop. This
farm has about 4,000 trees but has no structural
improvements.
Beef
There have been limited sales in this market sector
as graziers rebuild stock numbers after last year’s
dry conditions.
Poultry
Some of the local poultry assets including a hatchery
and breeder farms owned by Ingham have been sold
on leaseback.
Mildura/Sunraysia
The start of the year has seen above average rainfall
for the region, with two rain events. While bad timing
for grape growers the rain has provided some much
needed soil moisture for dryland farmers.
The wine grape sector is currently harvesting,
however Murray Valley wine grape growers have
been dealt another significant blow with indicative
wine grape prices for 2015 bringing more bad news
for growers. A slight increase in the price for some
white wine varieties has been offered but pain is
being felt with some prices of red varieties well below
the cost of production.
The fresh fruit table grape harvest is in full swing and
while the contrasting weather patterns and humidity
have not been ideal, the weather in the week
following the rainfall has been kinder which is likely
to alleviate any significant damage to fruit quality.
Growers are optimistic that talks last week will see an
end to the ban on Australian fruit into Vietnam which
may mean local fruit exports will reopen in May.
There have been minimal sales of wine grape
holdings in this region during 2014 and early 2015,
while table grape property sales have shown slightly
firmer levels for better quality holdings, particularly
in the Robinvale and Euston region.
Activity in the dryland cereal market has been
subdued for some time. Agents report renewed
interest in two Millewa properties offering over 2,500
hectares in a well regarded and tightly held area from
both local and out of area buyers keen to expand.
The Darling River has stopped flowing for the third
time in eleven years as flows cease from the now dry
Menindee Lakes. Concerns are held for the continuity
of water supply to Broken Hill and irrigators along
the Lower Darling and their long term viability. A
group of irrigators has lobbied the NSW government
for assistance as they now consider removal of
permanent plantings.
The first seasonal outlook for 2015 to 2016 for
Victoria has been released by the Resource Manager
for Northern Victoria. Under dry conditions the High
Reliability Water Shares allocations for the Goulburn/
Loddon and Murray are expected to be 39% at
1 July. Under average conditions this increases
to 49% (Goulburn/Loddon) and 55% (Murray).
Under average inflow conditions both systems are
forecast to have 100% High Reliability Water Shares
allocations by 15 October 2015. Current prices saw a
small increase last week with NSW High Security at
$2,100 per millilitre and Victorian High Security at
$1,850 per millilitre.
Murray Riverina
2014 saw a year of varying fortunes throughout
northern Victoria and the Riverina across various
segments in response to varying price and
environmental drivers. For the cropping sector the
pace of sales seemed to slow marginally over the
previous year though pricing of good quality dryland
through the Mallee at close to $2,500 per hectare
for the very best parcel was consistent, while closer
to Elmore dry land parcels have achieved prices
touching $4,500 per hectare. Those on heavier soils
in the Mallee and Wimmera or who missed out on
finishing rains unfortunately had tougher years and
were not able to capitalise on what ended up to be
above average pricing. It will be interesting to see if
demand/levels of value ease in the coming year as a
result.
In the dairy sector price signals were around the
longer term average though the price of irrigation
water on a temporary basis in conjunction with grain
prices probably made the going relatively difficult.
It is worth noting that there were several larger
Rural
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