Do you consider yourself to be “an average Australian farmer?"

If you’re aged 55, own a farm business, have managed it for 23 years and your main activity is grazing, then you’d be spot on.

That’s according to the latest snapshot of Australian farmers compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The ABS report ‘Land Management and Farming in Australia, 2009-10’, released yesterday, found that:

• In 2009-10, approximately 52pc of Australia’s total land area was managed by agricultural businesses.
• In 2009-10, approximately 60,000 agricultural businesses prepared land for crops or horticulture covering 25.1 million hectares.
• Grazing land accounted for 88pc of land managed by agricultural businesses. Almost half (48pc) of all agricultural businesses in Australia were engaged in cropping activities and 17pc were engaged in horticulture.
• Of those businesses that have natural environments on their property, over half protected these areas for conservation purposes.
• The main crop residue management practice was to leave stubble intact (48pc of all agricultural businesses), ploughing crop residue into the soil (34pc) and removal of crop residue by baling or heavy grazing (23pc).
• A large proportion (61pc) of agricultural businesses in Australia applied fertiliser to their holding in 2009-10. The average application rates for manufactured fertilisers ranged between 0.08 and 0.21 tonnes per hectare. The application rate for animal manure was 2.73 tonnes per hectare down from 3.19 tonnes per hectare in 2007-08.

More details of the report can viewed  on the ABS website