An exceptional spring, a bumper grain harvest and soaring livestock prices have pushed Australia’s anticipated average broadacre farm cash income to $216,000 for this financial year.

ABARES expects Australian farmers will produce a record $63.8b in crops and livestock, an 8.3 per cent rise on 2015-16’s figures.

ABARES economist, Tom Jackson, said beef prices had nearly doubled in real terms in the past three years to values not seen since before the 1970s cattle market crash, lifting average beef enterprise earnings to about $163,000 in 2016-17.

Strengthening wool prices and surging sheepmeat demand would push sheep producer incomes to average $133,000, up from $105,000/farm last year.

“It’s clear the beef, sheep and cropping sectors have had a very good run in recent years,” Mr Jackson told the Outlook 17 conference.

Grain farm earnings will average almost $400,000, with the big crop also heavily responsible for a likely $1 billion jump in the value of Australian farm exports to $48.7b for the year.

But dairy farm earnings continue to reflect poor global milk prices of the past year, slumping to a national average of $105,000.

Victorian farm incomes have dropped about $30,000 in the past 12 months to just $75,000, despite cheaper fodder and irrigation costs.

“The national dairy average is about 13pc below the past 10 years,” he said.

Meanwhile, average farm costs for the financial year are expected to be up about 7pc, partly as a result of higher prices for replacement store stock and breeders, plus extra fertiliser and crop chemical costs in the wet winter and spring.