AGRICULTURAL CENSUS 2006

In 2006, the Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted a Census of 185,000 agricultural businesses, the largest ABS collection apart from the 5 yearly Population Census. The ABS releases several publications using data collected in the Agricultural Census.

Principal Agricultural Commodities, Australia, Preliminary (cat. no. 7111.0), was released on 17 May. It includes state and territory production and area figures for main crops, as well as livestock numbers for cattle, sheep, lambs and pigs. Horticulture (vegetables, fruit and nuts) estimates at the Australian and state levels will be released in late June as a supplementary dataset to this publication.

Findings in the Principal Agricultural Commodities, Australia, Preliminary indicate that in 2005–06, New South Wales:

• had the highest number of sheep and lambs of any state or territory (31.3 million), accounting for 34% of all sheep and lambs in Australia, and
  
• was Australia's second largest wheat producer (7.8 million tonnes) accounting for 31% of the total Australian wheat production.

Future releases using Agricultural Census data:

• Selected Agricultural Commodities, Australia, Preliminary (cat. no. 7112.0) will be released towards the end of July, and will contain estimates of all commodities at the state level, including a greater range of crop, horticulture and livestock statistics.
  
• Water Use on Australian Farms (cat. no. 4618.0) will be released in August, and will contain estimates of agricultural irrigation water use by crop, other agricultural water use and water sources at the Australian and state levels. Regional level water data will be released following publication of Agricultural Commodities, Australia.
  
• Agricultural Commodities, Australia (cat. no. 7121.0) will be released in late 2007, and will include final data for all commodities, as well as statistics on the number of agricultural businesses (size, industry and the estimated value of agricultural operations).
  
• As a supplement to Agricultural Commodities, Australia,a number of datasets containing small area data (Statistical Division and Statistical Local Area) will be released on the ABS website.

For further information contact Daniel Lester on (03) 6222 5943 or the National Referral Service on 1300 135 070, email client.services@abs.gov.au.