Agricultural Survey

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    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

    Data availability comments
    Forms are dispatched in June, preliminary estimates are available in November and final estimates are available in July of the following year.


    DATE OF LAST UPDATE FOR THIS DOCUMENT
    06/04/2011 02:40 PM