Low commodity costs and increasing input expenses have indicated that confidence in Western Australia farmers has dropped for the third quarter in a row.

According to a Rabobank survey, nearly half of the state's cultivators had fewer profits in the initial three months of 2010 than the same period last year.

And Rabobank's WA Manager, Crawford Taylor says that majority of the growers do not think that their funds will get better any time soon.

He said that in fact, what it is revealing is that roughly 73% of growers think that conditions will get bad or generally remain the same. He says that it was around 60% in the last study.

Rural business confidence has also plunged in North Queensland.

The Rabobank survey says that farmers have the lowest confidence in the state owing to falling sugar prices and cattle market uncertainty.

Mount Garnet grazier, Giles Atkinson says that over the past decade State Government regulations have hurt his process.

He says that beef prices have also plummeted, and his buoyancy has hardly ever been that poorer.

He adds, "I would say in the last ten years we've just had one regulation after another put on us, and now cattle prices are the way they are at the moment".