ABARES is conducting its annual farm survey program, the data from which will be used to inform responses to challenges such as drought and trade disruptions.

This year’s program is collecting data from farms across the country to provide the facts around how farms are performing.

ABARES officers will undertake face-to-face interviews with about 1900 pre-selected farmers throughout Australia from June to December.

ABARES Executive Director Dr Jared Greenville said the surveys are a core part of the evidence base that industries and governments across Australia use in making policy and responding to challenges.

“The interviews cover questions about farm structure and land use, production, costs and other economic factors of the farm business,” Dr Greenville said.

“The continued success of the survey, and its value to industry and government, depends on the cooperation of those participants selected to represent their industry.

“I’d encourage any farms selected in our surveys, to participate, to help ensure we create the best dataset we can.”

ABARES has been conducting agricultural industry surveys for the past 70 years. Two main surveys have been running since the 1970s.

The Australian Agricultural and Grazing Industries Survey, covering broadacre farms, has been conducted since 1977. It provides our longest time series with 46 years of data. The sample size is about 1600 farms.

Source: ABARES. Farmers can contact ABARES Survey Collection team by telephone 1800 026 308 or email surveysabares@agriculture.gov.au.