Agricultural Survey

NAME OF ORGANISATION
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

OVERVIEW
The Agricultural Survey is the basic source of Australian agricultural commodity statistics.

Frequency: The Agricultural Survey (AS) is conducted annually. Approximately every fifth year an Agricultural Census will be conducted in place of the AS.
Scope: The frame population of the AS is all establishments with an Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations (EVAO) of $5,000 or more. The sample size for 2001/02 was approximately 35,000 respondents, and for 2002/03 it was 28,000. The sample for the 2003/04 Agricultural Survey is a combination of:
(a) a reduced sample from the same selections as the 2001/02 Agricultural Survey (about 28,000 of the original 35,000 units); and
(b) 3,000 new selections from the 2002 frame (to account for sample loss due to the increasing number of deaths). This extra sample will target industries where survey results for commodities are creeping out towards or beyond design parameters.

Statistical unit: Data is collected at the establishment level.
Information: The Agricultural Survey collects area and production data for a wide range of agricultural commodities. This commodity data is used to produce data on the Value of Agricultural Commodities Produced (VACP). Information on inputs to the production process is also collected and disseminated.

Major Area of holding
commodity Land use
categories: Cereals and other broadacre crops
Vegetables
Fruit
Vineyards
Livestock

Breakdowns: Data are available at State and Statistical Division (SD).
Data are available by Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations (EVAO), Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), commodity and specified size ranges (e.g. herd size) and Area of Holding classes.

Two complementary collections are run in conjunction with the Agricultural Survey, namely Apples and Pears (user-funded) and Vineyards (user-funded). The two user-funded surveys have their own separate entries.

Design Constraints for major data items:

Relative Standard Errors (RSEs) 2.5 % for Australian level
6% for State level
12% for regional level

Minimum stratum sample size: 15 for size 1; 10 for others

PURPOSE
Primary producers, industry organisations and suppliers, and other agricultural service and support industries use agricultural statistics for planning and decision making. The Federal and State Governments make extensive use of agricultural statistics for planning, budgets advisory services and for policies related to marketing agricultural commodities.

The prime objective of the Agricultural Survey (AS) is to act as a source of basic agricultural statistics about a wide variety of commodities.

The AS is designed primarily to collect data about commodities (including area and production for crops, number of livestock and area irrigated). Data are also available on the number of producers for each commodity, and on the counts of producers by Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) class.

The AS is also the major source of commodity data input into the calculation of Value of Agricultural Commodities Produced (VACP). VACP is a major output from the survey which is in turn used as an input to the Australian National Accounts.

SCOPE
Main Survey
The scope is all establishments with an Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations (EVAO) of $5,000 or above. There are approximately 147,000 such establishments in Australia.
The sample size for 2001/02 was approximately 35,000 respondents, and for 2002/03 it was 28,000. The sample for the 2003/04 Agricultural Survey was a combination of:
(a) a reduced sample from the same selections as the 2001/02 Agricultural Survey (about 28,000 of the original 35,000 units); and
(b) 3,000 new selections from the 2002 frame (to account for sample loss due to the increasing number of deaths). This extra sample will target industries where survey results for commodities are creeping out towards or beyond design parameters.

Supplementary Surveys
Within the normal $5,000 EVAO constraint:

Coverage checking is a continual process. Sources of coverage include front-of-form (FOF) information, lists from industry groups, and the ABS Business Register.

DATA DETAIL

Conceptual framework
The Agricultural Survey (AS) provides a measure of agricultural activity. The scope is all Establishments with an Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations (EVAO) of $5,000 or above. The population is stratified by State, sub-State Region, Industry, Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) and Size (EVAO and Area of Holding).

An establishment with agricultural activity is usually a single physical location which is used for the production of crops (including fruit and vegetables) and/or for the raising of livestock and the production of livestock products.

Establishments in the agricultural sector were classified in accordance with the methodology described in the 1993 Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ABS cat. no.1292.0).

The ANZSIC codes of agricultural units are determined annually by valuing physical crop and livestock information collected. The valuation procedure allows for the industry classification of individual units to be changed to reflect significant or long term changes in their activities (e.g. a unit may change from the Grain ANZSIC to the Sheep ANZSIC if the farmer changes production patterns).

The procedure provides for a dampening or resistance effect to offset instability in allocation to particular classes of the classification which would arise from short-term factors such as large price movements, floods and drought. To obviate such effects, the valuation procedure takes into account (without double counting) the area of crops sown and numbers of livestock on holdings at a point in time as well as the crops produced and livestock turnover during the year.

The resultant aggregation of commodity values is termed the EVAO. It should be noted that EVAO is applicable only for industry coding and size valuation purposes. It is not an indicator of receipts obtained by units or of the value of agricultural commodities produced by these units.

Main outputs
Number-raised estimates of activity undertaken throughout the year, and levels of stock etc. held on farm at 30 June, including estimates of population participation by commodity.

Counts of respondents by commodity.

Publications to which the Agricultural Survey contributes:

Principal Agricultural Commodities, Australia, Preliminary (ABS Cat. No 7111.0)

Preliminary statistics on area and production of principal cereals for grain; area intended to be sown to barley, oats and wheat for all purposes; livestock numbers, lambing and intended matings.

Agricultural Commodities, Australia (ABS cat. no. 7121.0).

Presents final estimates of production for all commodities collected in the Agricultural Survey. These include broadacre crops, fruit and vegetables as well as the number of livestock and livestock products. Also includes details of industry structure including counts of farms by Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) and size (physical and economic).

Classifications
Standards used in the Agricultural Survey include:

A - Geographical regions
State
Statistical Division (SD)
Statistical Local Area (SLA)

B - Industry ( ANZSIC )

C - Size ( Area of Holding, EVAO)

D - Commodity classes
Non-standard. The ANZSCC is not suitable for the collection and compilation of the commodities covered by the Agricultural Survey/Census and other agricultural collections such as Apples and Pears and Vineyards.

Other concepts (summary)
The commodity classification is broadly broken down as follows

Commodity CCN Group

Area of holding 01
Information Technology 08
Pastures
Excluding pastures harvested for seed 10
Harvested for seed 11
Crops
Cereal crops 15
Non cereal crops 18 and 19
Crop forecast, stocks 33
Vegetables
Potatoes 35
Other vegetables 36
Fruit
Area of orchard fruit trees 40
Orchard fruit intended for sale 42
Other fruit intended for sale 42
Non orchard fruit intended for sale 43
Apple varieties 45
Pear varieties 46
Vineyards
Area and production of grapevines 48
Red grape varieties 51
White grape varieties 51
Artificial fertilisers and soil conditioners used 56
Irrigation 57
Livestock
Sheep and lambs 60
Wool production 63
Lambing and lamb forecasts 64
Cattle and calves 70
Calves - births 72
Pigs 75
Other livestock 76
Sales of livestock 77
Livestock deaths/losses 78
Poultry 80
Beekeeping 85

GEOGRAPHIC DETAIL
Australia
New South Wales
Victoria
Queensland
South Australia
Western Australia
Tasmania
Northern Territory
ACT
Statistical Division
Other (specify below)

Comments and/or Other Regions
Agro-Ecological Region (AER)

COLLECTION FREQUENCY
Annually

Frequency comments
The current strategy is for a 5 yearly census with sample surveys in inter-censal years.

1996-97 Census; 1997-98 Sample; 1998-99 Sample; 1999-2000 Sample; 2000-01 Census; 2001-02 Sample; 2002-03 Sample; 2003-04 Sample

Following discussions between ABS and Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Australia (AFFA) in June 2000, a decision was made to advance the Agriculture Census by a year. The next Ag Census is scheduled for the year ended 30 June 2006.

COLLECTION HISTORY
Prior to the 1997/98 cycle, the history of the collection is that of the Agricultural Census.

2003-04 Agricultural Survey
2002-03 Agricultural Survey
2001-02 Agricultural Survey
2000-01 Agricultural Census
1999-00 Reference period changed to 'Year Ended 30 June'.
1997-98 Agricultural Commodity Survey introduced
1996-97 Long form, all establishments with an EVAO greater than or equal to $5,000
1995-96 Short form, all establishments with an EVAO greater than or equal to $5,000
1994-95 Short form, all establishments with an EVAO greater than or equal to $5,000
1993-94 Long form. This was the first year of the long form/short form cycle.
Change in EVAO level to $5,000 and over.
1992-93 EVAO level to $22,000 and over.
1991-92 Change in EVAO level to $22,500 and over.
1990-91 EVAO level to $20,000 and over.
1989-90 EVAO level to $20,000 and over.
1988-89 EVAO level to $20,000 and over.
1987-88 EVAO level to $20,000 and over.
1986-87 Change in EVAO level to $20,000 and over.
1982-83 Change in EVAO level to $2,500 and over.
Prior to this, EVAO level was $1,500 and over.
Earliest year for which electronic data is available is 1982-83.
Information before 1982-83 is available only in printed form.

DATA AVAILABILITY
Yes