Agriculture

In seasonally adjusted terms for the June 2024 quarter:

• Red meat production increased 3.6%
• Chicken meat production increased 5.4%

• Local value of livestock disposals decreased 1% to $23.3 billion in 2022-23
• Local value of poultry slaughtered increased by 15.6%  to $3.6 billion 
• There were 29.9 million cattle on holding at 30 June 2023 with 27.8 million beef cattle and 2.1 million dairy cattle.
   

• 369 million hectares of agricultural land, down 5% from 2020-21
• 36 million tonnes of wheat produced, up 14%
• 7 million tonnes of canola production, up 43%
• 70 million sheep and lambs on farms at 30 June 2022, up 3%
• 22 million beef cattle at 30 June 2022, up 1%

• The gross value of wheat increased 33% to $13 billion in 2021-22
• The gross value of canola doubled to $6 billion
• The gross value of livestock disposals increased 12% to $25 billion
• The gross value of livestock products increased 7% to $9 billion

• The local value of Australian fruit production (excluding wine grapes) was $6.3 billion in 2022-23 with 2.7 million tonnes sold in 2022-23
• Local value of vegetable production was $5.8 billion with 3.6 million tonnes sold
• Local value of cut flowers, nurseries and turf sold was $3.4 billion
• Local value of nut production sold was $721.2 million
• Local value of wine grapes was $983.1 million with 1.3 million tonnes crushed.

• 41.2 million tonnes of wheat sold with a local value of $13.5 billion in 2022-23
• 8.9 million tonnes of canola sold with a local value of $6.6 billion
• 32.6 million tonnes of sugarcane sold with a local value of $1.5 billion.

• 31.1 million tonnes of sugarcane were produced in 2020.
• 355 thousand hectares were harvested for sugarcane milling.
• 3,830 sugarcane businesses produced sugarcane.

• 7.3 million tonnes of sugarcane were produced in the Burdekin Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2), which is the largest sugarcane producing SA2 in Australia. 

• 7.8 million megalitres of water was applied to crops and pastures in 2020-21 (up 37% from 2019-20)
• 1.9 million hectares of agricultural land was irrigated (up 28%)
• 20,700 farms applied water to their land, unchanged from 2019-20

• 2,136 thousand tonnes of canola were produced in Australia in 2019-20 with a farm gate value of $1,207 million dollars.
• Esperance Region (WA), Eyre Peninsula (SA) and Kojonup (WA) were Australia’s largest canola producing Statistical Area 2 regions.
   

• Lamb slaughter increased by 11.6% compared to May 2020.
• Lamb production increased by 13.6% compared to May 2020.

This publication contains final Gross Value of Irrigated Agricultural Production (GVIAP) estimates for Australia

Information on Australian agricultural businesses management practices, including soil enhancers, fertiliser use, cropping and pasture management