It wasn't the dirt beneath their feet which has been driving record farm prices but what has been happening in the skies overhead.
Three La Nina induced wet years in a row have fuelled unprecedented agricultural production right across Australia.
Rarely do good seasons and good prices coincide but when they do - year after year - it is time to cash in.
For many it has meant a gamble on the future, taking a calculated risk with the weather, commodity prices and interest rates to add to their farm size.
Others are choosing to spend on-farm like pasture improvements, fencing, machinery and stock.
The number of farm sales slowed in 2022 but prices remained at their record highs - and are expected to stay that way well into 2023.
Property analysts say agricultural land prices rose another 25 per cent this year on the back of a 27pc rise the year before.
Rabobank said some of the biggest rises were in cropping land - Victoria up 78pc in 2021 while cropping land in Queensland was up by 63pc.
Recent Elders Real Estate data shows the median sale price for rural property across Australia broke the $1 million mark for the first time this year.
The number of transactions greater than $20 million increased by 65.4pc in 2021-22.
It is also worth remembering property prices right across rural Australia have risen markedly over the past three years.
MORE READING: 100 farmland sales of 2022, all the results.
While home prices in capital cities fell 5.2pc this year, regional housing values rose by 3.3pc.
The numbers for rural property are remarkable and even a return to a "typical" season after the La Nina fades early next year will continue the push, experts predict.
There are some words of caution about record farm production "coming off the boil".
Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said one of the main drivers for the record farm sales, booming commodity prices, might be more subdued.
Ms Conisbee said flooding impacts and rising production in other countries will likely "pull back prices".
"Overall agricultural production value is likely to remain at historically high levels but will be lower than those experienced in 2021/22 and this will impact farm values," she said.
Interest rates
Rising interest rates will also start to bite, restricting the amount people can borrow.
"This is across all of Australia and all property types," Ms Conisbee said.
"2023 will still be a good year for regional Australia. However as we come off record agricultural production, wrestle with rising interest rates and start to get back to our pre-pandemic lives, it will be a much slower year for property price growth."
Another striking phenomenon of the farm price boom has been the starring role neighbours have played in driving prices to these record heights.
Real estate agency Raine and Horne identified offering farm succession services to fill a key farm customer need.
Raine and Horne's NSW network manager Travis Wentriro said rural real estate markets across Australia are reaching a significant crossroads with some massive rural and agribusinesses about to face major succession planning issues.
"In many cases, the second or third generation of a family is running these rural concerns, and they want to set their succession plans in concrete.
"However, in many cases, the next generation doesn't want to go farming, which drives plenty of rural sales.
"Our offices want to have a crack at assisting their rural clients with their succession planning."
Stations to star
Outback cattle stations should prove the star of 2023 property sales, according to a leading expert in the field.
CBRE Agribusiness managing director David Goodfellow said low-input farming was now on the radar of big institutional investors.
This was because with the dramatic rise of farm input costs - particularly fertiliser - those farms that were low-input were actually increasing their profitability as commodity prices rose.
"I reckon we are going to see an increased focus on that part of Australia that is considered to be low-input ag," Mr Goodfellow said.
"Last year we saw record prices for urea, so when you think about grazing properties in western Queensland, through the Territory, even up in the Kimberley, they don't even know what fertiliser is.
"They are not exposed to these rising input costs that the horticulture sector is, or the intensive cropping sector is, so what we are seeing is that their revenues are going up with rising commodity prices, but their costs are not really going up to the same extent."
Mr Goodfellow said that led to higher profitability for those operations.
"The farm profitability of those low input sectors has not doubled, it has tripled or more.
"So people who have done the maths to work that out are saying that's probably the next best opportunity in Australia, to go into those sectors."
However, Mr Goodfellow acknowledged that by its very nature, "more marginal country" required development, which buyers would need to take into account.
MORE READING: Qld's red hot market motors along.
He also said that while the large cattle-station sector was in the box seat, farmland property prices across the board would continue to rise in 2023.
"We might see a slowdown in the growth rates of, say, cropping and horticulture, but that will be offset by rising growth rates in the livestock sector, particularly in those areas that were worst hit by the drought and are still going through that restocking cycle."
"Ag is considered sophisticated institutions as one of the best hedges against inflation, and that is why we are seeing them pulling money out of other asset classes, out of bonds, shares, commercial property or residential property to park into agriculture, because the expectation is that inflation will remain high or even continue to rise over the next three years."
Australian Community Media formed a new partnership with leading online listings portal Farmbuy.com during the year.
Buyers examined more than 4400 properties for sale on farmbuy.com up a whopping 19.2pc year-on-year - with larger holdings over 100 acres accounting for almost 40 per cent of enquiries.
Highlighting the strength of the upper end of the rural property market, traditionally larger livestock, mixed farms, viticulture, horticulture, dairy and cropping properties accounted for 20 per cent of property views in the period.
Analysis of ABARES' farm survey data shows that much of this increase in borrowing was for on-farm investment, particularly land purchases.
Don't miss out on all the latest rural property news. Sign up here to receive our free twice weekly Farmonline property newsletter.
