4627.0 - Land Management and Farming in Australia, 2014-15 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 25/05/2016   
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KEY FIGURES
SOIL ENHANCER USE, Australia, year ended 30 June 2015


2014-15
Movement since
2013-14
ha
%

Compost
261 760
13%
Green manure
41 625
-29%
Mulch
13 011
-59%
Lime and/or dolomite (a)(b)
2 419 064
17%
Gypsum
989 632
0%
Biochar
7 197
49%
Poultry manure
271 270
40%
Other soil enhancers
557 055
16%

(a) Including lime sand and stone
(b) Data for Lime and Dolomite are recorded separately in the datacubes
Graph Image for Soil management

Footnote(s): (a) Includes ACT (b) Zero values may represent data that is not available for publication due to confidentiality restrictions (c) Includes lime sand and stone.

Source(s): Land Management and Farming in Australia, 2014-15



KEY POINTS
  • It is estimated that 26,800, or 22%, of all agricultural businesses in Australia used soil enhancers on 4.6 million hectares of land in 2014-15. This was a 19% increase in the number of agricultural businesses applying soil enhancers and a 12% increase in the area that soil enhancers were used on when compared to 2013-14.
  • Lime and/or dolomite was the main soil enhancer by area of application in 2014-15, and accounted for 53% of the area on which all soil enhancers were applied. This category of soil enhancers also reported the largest change in area of application up by 347 thousand hectares, or 17%, to 2.4 million hectares and/or dolomite was the main soil enhancer by area of application in 2014-15, and accounted for 53% of the area on which all soil enhancers were applied.
  • Victoria recorded the largest number of agricultural businesses applying some form of soil enhancer (7,470 businesses), which was up by 18% on the 2013-14 estimate, Western Australia applied soil enhancers to the largest area of land (1.9 million hectares), which was up by 12% on the 2013-14 estimate.

Tonnes of soil enhancers applied, 2014-15
by Natural Resource Management Regions

Map: Tonnes of soil enhancers applied by NRM reigon