For an industry in dire straits less than a month ago, there is a new optimism thanks to some much-needed rain.

Fewer cattle were offered at Maitland's first sale of the year last week, but today's sale would be a good indicator of things to come, Bowe and Lidbury auctioneer Rodney McDonald said.

Though conditions were improving, the region needed a good dumping of follow-up rain for it to have any lasting effect, Mr McDonald said.

When The Herald first spoke a month ago to Millers Forest farmer Bill Munton he was thinking of selling the bulk of his stock.

"We need more rain, but we're that much better off than we were," Mr Munton said. "It gives everyone a lift, hope for the future."

Mr Munton said he would hold off sending any cattle to the Maitland sale yards for a few weeks.

"I would expect prices to rise steadily in the next few weeks," he said.

A very dry 2009 almost ruined some Lower Hunter cattle farmers. Some smaller operations had to sell their stock in a drastically low market because they were unable to keep up with feed costs.

"The smaller guys weren't replacing their stock and were going to end up with a lot of land doing nothing," Mr Munton said.

Last year auction prices had fallen to 1970 prices and limited export demand because Australia's high dollar had driven cattle prices down at a time when farmers needed the opposite, he said.

"It's a matter of hanging in there and it might just be all right," Mr Munton said.

"You can't live off your farm anymore, you need a second income to survive."

A lot of farmers' wives were going back to work to improve cash flow, he said.

"The last few months have been increasingly hard because when you did make the hard decision to sell up, you couldn't even get a decent price for your cattle," he said.