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In this section you will find detailed information, including national overviews and state and regional level assessments, from the 2000-2002 National Land and Water Resources Audit theme assessments.
People - Adjustment - Number of farm establishments
Number of farm establishments
Data Sources
The estimate of the number of farm establishments in 1986 is drawn from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Farm Census. Establishments with an Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations of greater than $30,000 (in 1996 dollars) were included. Data from 1986 is presented to provide a picture of the structure of the agricultural sector at the beginning of the period being studied in this report.
Indicator Construction
Currently the farm establishment is defined as a farm business or discreet section of a farm business, which has been estimated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to produce a gross value of production greater than the pre-determined cut-off figure. Farms with production lower than this figure are excluded from Farm Census data. This cut-off figure has changed in past agricultural censuses. To overcome these changes, special data tables were purchased with cut-offs based upon 1996 dollar values. A cut-off of $30,000 was used to create this indicator. The estimate was smoothed by averaging the counts of farm establishments meeting this Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations criteria over a three year period.
Indicator limitations
- The financial cut-off ensures that commodity price changes can have a significant impact upon the number of farms included in the census. As an example, the large fall in the price of wool between 1988 and 1990 would have resulted in the removal of a significant number of small wool properties from the farm census.
- Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations estimates are created using average commodity values prevailing through the financial year. Significant variations in prices received due to seasonal differences or differing marketing skills of producers will not be captured by this statistic.
Observations
- In 1986 there were 128,783 farm establishments with an Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations greater than $30,000 (in 1996 dollars).
- The mapping farm establishments shows a spatial "doughnut" effect, with the density of farm establishment numbers per Statistical Local Area being lowest in the rangeland margins and the uplands close to major population centres. With the exception of the rangelands, most Statistical Local Areas visible in the map had 100 or more farm establishments within their boundaries.
Figure 1 Number of farm establishments with Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations greater than $30,000 by Statistical Local Area in 1986 (using 1996 dollar values)
Click here to view map
See appendix figures 14-17 for further geographic detail.
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