During 2013-14 approximately 41,400 agricultural businesses applied nitrogen based fertiliser, representing a 15% decrease in the number of businesses undertaking this practice from 2011-12.
Nitrogen based fertiliser was applied to 32.3 million hectares of agricultural land. The most commonly used nitrogen based fertilisers were ammonium phosphates and urea, which were applied to 12 million hectares and 11.9 million hectares respectively.
Western Australia remained the largest user of liquid nitrogen based fertilisers, with urea ammonium nitrate being the most used fertiliser in that state with 156.8 million litres applied to 3 million hectares.
Fertilising by broadcasting dry nitrogen based fertiliser on the surface was the method of application used on the largest area of land, with 9.9 million hectares being fertilised using this method. This was closely followed by dry nitrogen based fertiliser drilled below the surface, with this method being used to fertilise 9.5 million hectares of land.
Of the states/territories, broadcasting dry nitrogen based fertiliser on the surface was applied on the largest area of land in Western Australia (3.7 million hectares) followed by New South Wales (2.2 million hectares) and Victoria (2.1 million hectares).
Approximately 28,200 agricultural businesses applied slow release fertiliser to 14.2 million hectares of land, with nitrate slow release fertiliser being applied by 13,400 agricultural businesses to 5.6 million hectares.
Footnote(s): (a) Includes ACT (b) Zero values may represent data that is not available for publication due to confidentiality restrictions.
In Wheatbelt West (AAE 15) in Western Australia, agricultural businesses applied nitrogen based fertiliser to 10.7 million hectares, the largest area applied across all Australian Agricultural Environments.
Percent of agricultural businesses using nitrogen based fertiliser, 2013-14
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