Meat and wool farmers expect a bleak year, with dry weather and the high New Zealand dollar hurting their profits.
Federated Farmers says its latest farm confidence survey shows 63.6% of wool and meat farmers expect their profitability to drop, and 10.6% think it will increase.
Federation president Bruce Wills said confidence is down due to falling demand for wool and meat.
However Mr Wills says dairy farmers are more positive, with 24.6% of those surveyed expecting their profitability to improve and 40% to stay the same.
He said that optimism is driven by rising demand for milk products overseas and better payout forecasts.
Lamb prices are down by about 35% on the same time last year and wool prices are also struggling to hold on to earlier gains.
Beef prices have also started to fall after a long period of stability.
Farmers in all sectors are anxious about the high dollar.
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