Agriculture

In seasonally adjusted terms for the March 2026 quarter:

• Red meat production increased 0.5%
• Chicken meat production increased 0.9%

• Local value of total livestock disposals increased 27.0% to $28.4 billion in 2024-25
• Local value of sheep and lamb disposals increased by 37.7% to $5.1 billion
• There were 29.7 million cattle on holding at 30 June 2025 with 27.6 million beef cattle and 2.1 million dairy cattle.
   

• 61.1 million tonnes of winter broadacre crops sold in 2024-25.
• Winter crops had a combined local value of $22.5 billion.
• 34.8 million tonnes of wheat sold, up 6.8 million tonnes.
• Wheat local value increased by $1.3 billion to $10.1 billion.

• Chickpea production increased from 546 thousand tonnes to 2.0 million tonnes.

   

• The local value of horticulture (including wine grapes) was $18.0 billion in 2023-24, an increase of $721 million from 2022-23
• The local value of Australian fruit (excluding wine grapes) was $6.8 billion, an increase of $492.9 million
• Fruit production increased 101,000 tonnes to 2.8 million tonnes sold
• Local value of vegetables was $5.7 billion, a decrease of $140.2 million
• Vegetable production increased 250,000 tonnes to 3.8 million tonnes sold
• Local value of cut flowers, nurseries and turf sold was $3.2 billion, a decrease of $140.5 million
• Local value of nut production sold was $1.2 billion, an increase of $484.0 million
• Local value of wine grapes was $1.0 billion, an increase of $24.2 million
• Wine grape crush increased 112,000 tonnes to 1.4 million tonnes.

• 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

• 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