Riding on the back of surging stock prices, Wanganui hill country farmers are at last enjoying the benefits after some desperate years.
The latest data from Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry shows that farming in the Wanganui area has undergone a turnaround after a series of bleak seasons, with pre-tax profits particularly soaring in the past 12 months.
The figures for sheep and beef farming in the lower western North Island region, which includes Wanganui, show that in in 2009-10, farm profits before tax were estimated at $30,728.
This year, MAF has pushed that estimated pre-tax profit out to $141,289 - an increase of about 360 per cent.
Go back to 2007-08, and the differences in pre-tax profits are even more startling, lifting a massive $134,955 in four years, and all on the back of rapidly increasing prices being paid for stock.
The data is just as compelling for hill country farms across the central North Island, including the Waimarino and Ruapehu districts.
Pre-tax profits on farms were $104,532 in 2009-10 but lifted to $148,172 in 2010-11, a jump of nearly $44,000 in 12 months.
The data is collated from MAF surveys of several farm types. It uses that information to "create" an average farm to work out the probable figures of that farm's operation.
Wanganui hill country farmer David Matthews said farming was "certainly a lot rosier" these days than it had been in recent years, buoyed by top prices for lambs.
"Farmers are the eternal optimists and we're always thinking it will get better.
"But the prices we're getting now certainly means deferred maintenance, such as fertilising, can go ahead.
"It's been a long time between drinks for us so we're not complaining about the prices we're getting. Now it's a matter of whether those prices hold," Mr Matthews said.
Wanganui Federated Farmers president Brian Doughty said the impact of good prices for lambs and beef was obvious.
"Even wool prices have had an impact," he said.
He said the increase in on-farm profits would allow many farmers to quit or pay off more of their mortgages.
The MAF surveys said dairy incomes lifted significantly in 2010-11. Shunted along by a payout of $7.50 per kilogram of milksolids, gross incomes lifted 23 per cent. This continued a trend of improving returns since the low of 2008-09.
In the Wanganui-Manawatu region, MAF calculated the pre-tax profits on dairy farms at $293,051 but suggested a drop of about $40,000 in before-tax profits in the coming year as payouts were expected to moderate.
However, despite the profit boosts, spending on many farms remained tight.
Phil Journeaux, a MAF analyst in Hamilton, said this was likely to be the norm until some time into the 2011-12 season when farmers saw how the season and payout progressed.
Mr Journeaux said many farmers were concentrating on debt reduction and looking to increase productivity.
On sheep and beef farms, better prices had lifted farm profits to record levels in 2010-11. Farm profits before tax more than doubled to $148,000 nationally - the highest level in a decade.
Even though lambing numbers were down, the better prices for lamb, wool and beef more than offset this.
MAF said farmers had increased spending on improving production as well as reducing debt. Others had taken advantage of the good year to purchase capital equipment such as tractors and vehicles. Analysts are predicting prices to be almost as good in the coming year.
Number-crunching
The model farm MAF used for their calculations represents 365 intensive finishing farms located south of New Plymouth and on the west coast of the North Island, and 1100 dairy farms through the same area.
For the hill country farms, the model MAF has used represents the 1270 beef and sheep farms from the Wanganui, Waikato, Taranaki and Manawatu regions. It represents the larger farms running breeding ewes and cows.