Ag Mag | the agriculture newsletter
2005-06 AGRICULTURAL CENSUS The five-yearly Agricultural Census was conducted in 2006 in relation to the 2005-06 reference period. In June 2006, Agricultural Census forms were sent to all businesses on the Australian Business Register (ABR) involved in agricultural production and who recorded an estimated value of agricultural operations (EVAO), or equivalent, of $5,000 or greater per year.

The main objective of the Agricultural Census was to provide benchmark information on the agriculture sector for small geographic areas. The 2005-06 Agricultural Census incorporates a number of significant changes which will improve the data used to support this objective. The two key changes were the move to a new population frame and the use of mesh blocks to support flexible geographic output regions

Standard output from the Census will be available at national, state, SD and SLA levels. In July 2007, Selected Agricultural Commodities, Australia, Preliminary (cat. no. 7112.0) was released with near-final estimates for the main agricultural commodities and livestock numbers. Preliminary estimates of agricultural water use were published in August 2007 in Water Use on Australian Farms (cat. no. 4618.0). Final estimates of area and production of crops; livestock numbers and livestock products for major agriculture outputs and activities (including broad commentary on agriculture industry structure) will be released in Catalogue 7121.0 in March 2008 with final water use data available soon after. The Value of Agricultural Commodities Produced (7503.0) final data will be released in May 2008. A copy of the proposed release timetable is located on the Agriculture Theme page.

Aggregated Mesh Block data for Natural Resource Management regions, River Basins and the Murray Darling Basin will become available from March 2008 - generally as standard spreadsheets suitable for Geographic Information Systems, and possibly as maps. By May 2008 the ABS will be in a position to examine user defined data requests. The ability of ABS to meet these requests will be dependent on ABS confidentiality constraints, the size and location of the regions and the type of data requested.

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