7121.0 - Agricultural Commodities, Australia, 2007-08 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 22/05/2009   
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SUMMARY OF FINDINGS INDUSTRY STRUCTURE


NUMBER OF AGRICULTURAL BUSINESSES

The 2007-08 ARMS found that the number of businesses undertaking agricultural activity at 30 June 2008 had fallen by 6% to 141 thousand businesses.

The beef cattle farming industry was the largest sector, comprising around 33% of all agricultural businesses. Grain growers were the next largest sector at 11%, followed by the mixed farming sector (grain-sheep/beef cattle) at 10%. Notably, the number of specialised sheep farmers, and sheep-beef cattle farmers has decreased by 9% and 14% respectively.

The Survey also found that there were an estimated 15 thousand non-agricultural businesses who undertook agricultural activity during 2007-08.