7121.0 - Agricultural Commodities, Australia, 2017-18 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 30/04/2019   
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Australian farms and farmers

As at 30 June 2018 there were 85,000 agricultural businesses (down 3% from June 2017) and 378 million hectares of agricultural land (down 4%).


Australian farmers

In 2017-18 the average Australian farmer was:

    · 57 years of age
    · male (more than two-thirds of farmers were male (77%)), and had
    · 37 years experience in farming
Image: Graph showing the average age of farmers in years by state/territory and gender in 2017-18



Sources of farm income

Australian farming businesses received most of their income from agricultural production in 2017-18:
    · 85% of income was from agricultural production
    · 11% was from off farm employment or business activities
    · 0.6% was from grants, government transfers and relief funding

Land use on Australian farms

Most agricultural land was used for agricultural production in 2017-18:
    · 328 million hectares were used for grazing
    · 31 million hectares for crops
    · 731,000 hectares for forestry plantation
    · 17 million hectares was not used for agricultural production, with half (50%) of this land set aside for conservation/protection purposes.