EXPLANATORY NOTES


INTRODUCTION

1 This publication presents estimates from the 2011-12 Land Management Practices Survey (LaMPS). It contains detailed statistics at the national and state/territory and Australian Agricultural Environments (AAE) regional levels, on the major agricultural land usage, and key land management practices being undertaken by Australian agricultural businesses. Additional information is available via the downloads tab of this product as separate comma separated value (.csv) data cubes that can be opened in a variety of packages, including Excel.


GENERAL

2 Where figures for individual states/territories have been suppressed for reasons of confidentiality, they have been included in relevant national totals. In addition, some categories have been combined, for example, combining Australian Capital Territory data with New South Wales data.

3 Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals.

4 For some items, multiple responses are possible and thus totals are not necessarily the sum of the component items. For example, a respondent could perform more than one land management practice on their holding.


SCOPE AND COVERAGE

5 The scope of the 2011-12 LaMPS was all agricultural businesses recorded on the ABS' Business Register (ABSBR) above a minimum size cut-off. The ABSBR is based on the Australian Business Register (ABR) which is administered and maintained by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

6 A minimum cut-off of $5,000 was applied to determine whether a business was in-scope for the 2011-12 LaMPS. The measure of size was based on the ABS' Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations (EVAO) or a derived value based on Business Activity Statement (BAS) turnover.

7 While the ABSBR does not include all agricultural businesses in Australia, it provides improved coverage from the former ABS maintained Agricultural Survey frame as most businesses and organisations in Australia need to obtain an Australian Business Number (ABN) from the ATO for their business operations. The ABR-based register is also more up-to-date as it excludes agricultural businesses with cancelled ABNs and incorporates regularly updated information on agricultural businesses from the ATO.

8 For the 2011-12 LaMPS, a response rate of 85.3% was achieved from a sample of approximately 50,000 agricultural businesses. This sample was selected from an in-scope population of approximately 153,000 agricultural businesses.

INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION

9 For the 2011-12 LaMPS, businesses have been classified according to the agricultural subdivision of the 2006 edition of the Australia and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (cat. no. 1292.0) (ANZSIC) as follows:

• 01 Agriculture (Division A)
  • 011 Nursery and Floriculture Production
  • 012 Mushroom and Vegetable Growing
  • 013 Fruit and Tree Nut Growing
  • 014 Sheep, Beef Cattle, and Grain Farming
  • 015 Other Crop Growing
  • 016 Dairy Cattle Farming
  • 017 Poultry Farming
  • 018 Deer Farming
  • 019 Other Livestock Farming

REFERENCE PERIOD

10 Estimates in this publication relate to agricultural businesses within the scope of the survey (see paragraph 6), which operated in Australia at any time during the year ended 30 Jun 2012.


GEOGRAPHIC CLASSIFICATION

11 Estimates for the 2011-12 LaMPS are classified to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard, 2011 (cat. no. 1270.0.55.001) (ASGS) at the national and state/territory levels and by AAE regions.

12 The AAE regions are based on agroecological regions and have been aligned to Statistical Area 2 (SA2) boundaries from the ASGS to make output comparable with other ABS data. The main features summary page contains a map of the specific AAE regions used in this publication. Various thematic maps are also presented throughout this publication.


RELIABILITY OF DATA

13 The estimates in this publication are subject to sampling and non-sampling errors.


SAMPLING ERRORS

14 The estimates in this publication are based on information obtained from respondents to the LaMPS for the year ended 30 June 2012 and are subject to sampling variability. That is, estimates may differ from figures that would be produced if all agricultural businesses had been included in the survey. One measure of the likely difference is given by the standard error (SE), which indicates the extent to which an estimate might vary by chance when not all units have responded, i.e. when a 'sample' of responses only is obtained. There are about two chances in three that a 'sample' estimate will differ by less than one SE from the figure that would have been obtained if all units had responded, and about nineteen chances in twenty that the difference will be less than two SEs.

15 In this publication, 'sampling' variability of the estimates is measured by the relative standard error (RSE) which is obtained by expressing the RSE as a percentage of the estimates to which it refers.

16 Most published estimates have RSEs less than 5%. Where the RSE of an estimate included in this publication falls in the range of 10% to less than 25%, it has been annotated with the symbol '^' indicating that the estimate should be used with caution as it is subject to sampling variability too high for some purposes. Where the RSE of an estimate is 25% to 50%, it has been annotated with the symbol '*', indicating that the estimate should be used with caution as it is subject to sampling variability too high for most practical purposes. Where the RSE of an estimate exceeds 50%, it has been annotated with the symbol '**', indicating that the sampling variability causes the estimate to be considered too unreliable for general use. Separate indication of the RSEs of all estimates is available on request.

17 The following table contains estimates of RSEs for a selection of the statistics presented in this publication:

	NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	Aust.
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Total area of intercropping (ha)	7.8	16.5	6.4	12.0	8.8	12.0	1.4	-	4.3
Land mainly used for crops - Area (ha)	1.8	3.7	2.5	3.0	1.8	3.7	4.9	21.8	1.0
Total area cultivated - Area (ha)	2.9	5.8	2.5	5.1	2.8	4.4	10.9	14.8	1.6
Crop stubble/trash managed - Cereals - Total area (ha)	2.6	5.1	4.6	5.0	2.7	2.6	3.1	32.1	1.7
Fertigation - Area (ha)	5.1	17.4	8.2	8.7	36.3	6.0	5.0	-	5.4
Water logging avoidance practices - All practices - Area (ha)	9.1	15.7	4.5	34.2	16.2	4.9	2.1	-	5.5
Livestock supplied with feed additives - Total - Head (n)	5.9	8.8	5.3	8.0	8.6	7.6	2.8	-	3.3
Lime and/or dolomite - Area applied to (ha)	7.8	8.4	4.0	15.7	4.1	9.6	5.0	11.9	3.3
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

NON-SAMPLING ERRORS

18 Errors other than those due to sampling may occur because of deficiencies in the list of units from which the sample was selected, non-response, and errors in reporting by providers. Inaccuracies of this kind are referred to as non-sampling error, which may occur in any collection, whether it be a census or a sample. Every effort has been made to reduce non-sampling error to a minimum by careful design and testing of questionnaires, operating procedures and systems used to compile the statistics.


RELATED PUBLICATIONS

19 A range of environmental and agricultural publications are produced by the ABS, including:

• Agricultural Commodities, Australia, 2011-12 (cat. no. 7121.0)
• Gross Value of Irrigated Agricultural Production, 2010-11 (cat. no. 4610.0.55.008)
• Historical Selected Agricultural Commodities, by State (1861 to Present), 2010-11 (cat. no. 7124.0)
• Land Management and Farming in Australia, 2009-10 (cat. no. 4627.0)
• Livestock and Meat, Australia, April 2013 (cat. no. 7218.0.55.001)
• Livestock Products, Australia, March 2013 (cat. no. 7215.0)
• Principal Agricultural Commodities, Australia, Preliminary, 2011-12 (cat. no. 7111.0)
• Value of Agricultural Commodities Produced, Australia, 2011-12 (cat. no. 7503.0)
• Value of Principal Agricultural Commodities Produced, Australia, Preliminary, 2011-12 (cat. no. 7501.0)
• Water use on Australian Farms, 2011-12 (cat. no. 4618.0)

20 For more information please refer to the ABS web site <https://www.abs.gov.au>. The ABS also issues a daily Release Advice on the web site which details products to be released in the week ahead. All ABS publications are available free of charge from the ABS website.


ABS DATA AVAILABLE ON REQUEST

21 As well as the statistics included in this and related publications, the ABS may have other relevant data available on request. Inquiries should be made to the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.


GENERAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT

22 ABS publications draw extensively on information provided freely by individuals, businesses, governments and other organisations. Their continued cooperation is very much appreciated. Without it, the wide range of statistics published by the ABS would not be available. Information received by the ABS is treated in strict confidence, as required by the Census and Statistics Act 1905.