"A quarter of farmers say their lending conditions had changed since the May survey and, of those with changed conditions, most said they were tougher rather than easier."
The average mortgage interest rate was 3.9 per cent - up from 3.8 per cent in May and nearly 90 per cent were paying mortgage interest rates of less than 5 per cent, with no one paying more than 10 per cent.
"That slight uptick might be an early sign of higher lending rates arising from recent and forecast increases in the OCR," Hoggard said.
"It may be that with strong commodity prices at present, many farmers are concentrating on paying off debt.
"Since May, the average farm mortgage value has decreased from $4.27 million to $3.6 million and the median from $2.2 million to $2.1 million."
There were some noticeable changes in the outlook for arable farms, Hoggard said.
This had become the sector with the largest proportion of mortgages (overtaking dairy) and the highest proportion of mortgages over $20 million.
Arable farmers were the "least satisfied" with their banking relationship.
This year's survey asked a couple of one-off questions about the use of cash and while it was clear its use was on the decline, nearly three-quarters of respondents said it remained an important option.
Nearly a quarter of farmers said they used cash for at least some farm business transactions - highest for sharemilkers and lowest for arable.
Meanwhile, 82 per cent said they still used cash for at least some personal transactions and nearly half said their rate of cash transactions was unchanged in recent years.
"Regardless of whether cash is used for business or personal transactions 74 per cent considered it important for cash to remain available, 13 per cent said it was not important, and 12 per cent were neutral," Hoggard said.
Other key findings from the November survey:
-57 per cent of farmers said communication with their bank had been good or very good, down 1 point on May. As with overall relationship satisfaction, sentiment had been eroding steadily over recent years.
-62 per cent of farmers had a budget for the current 2021/22 season and 24 per cent had a budget for the next 2022/23 season. Sharemilkers were by far the most likely to have budgets; meat and wool the least likely.
-Average overdraft interest rate was 6.3 per cent, unchanged from May. 20 per cent were paying overdraft interest rates of less than 5 per cent, and 3.5 per cent paying more than 10 per cent.
-ANZ had the biggest market share for both mortgages and overdrafts.
-Farmers were most satisfied with Rabobank and Westpac.
