Too many still haven’t internalised the lesson that, by hook or by crook, price stability is here to stay. This is part of why, to put it bluntly, the price of farm land is still very high - certainly irrationally high, if one is assessing the business of farming in terms of the annual profits being earned on the investment.
The Meat and Wool Board’s Economic Service reports that the rate of return on the market value of farm assets used in farming sheep and beef averaged just 0.8 per cent in 1995/96, and 1.7 per cent in 1996/97. Indeed, that rate of return has not reached 6 per cent in any year since 1979/80.