Have you checked out the 2015-16 Agricultural Census? There are a few approaches that you can take to understand what changes in the agricultural sector. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) have released a short infographic video which runs for just over a minute that gives a snapshot of Australia wide statistics.

For those who love a good overall sum up of the data detail the ABS have provided information sheets with overall details for Australia and summaries for each state. In 2015-16 there were 85,681 agricultural businesses operating in Australia, which was a slight increase from 2014-15 (1 per cent). There were 67.5m sheep and lambs, 22.3m beef cattle, 2.7m dairy cattle and 2.3m pigs as at 30 June 2016. The total gross value of agricultural production in Australia for 2015-16 was $56b.

Crops contributed $27.3b to the total value of agriculture in Australia with wheat ($6.2b), fruit and nuts (excluding grapes) ($4.2b) and vegetables ($3.6b), being the largest contributors. Livestock disposals and products contributed $28.6b to the total value of agriculture, with cattle and calves slaughter ($13.0b) and milk ($4.3b), contributing the largest amount. Poultry slaughter contributed $2.7b to the total.

Total water applied for agriculture in Australia decreased from 8,645,406ML in 2014-15 to 8,381,399ML in 2015-16, a change of -3 per cent. New South Wales accounted for 23 per cent of Australia’s agricultural production by value in 2015-16. The gross value (GV) of sheep and lamb slaughtered in New South Wales declined by $19.0m to $734.5m in 2015-16. A surprising one for me was that the GV of New South Wales’s orange crop rose by $17.8m in 2015- 16 to $148m, an increase of 14 per cent. Water applied for agriculture in New South Wales decreased from 3,116,490ML in 2014-15 to 2,610,856ML in 2015-16, a change of -16 per cent.

The size of the New South Wales sheep and lamb flock in 2015-16 was 26.0m head, accounting for 38 per cent of the Australian total. The cotton lint (irrigated and non-irrigated) production increased by 109.0m kilograms, or 43 per cent, to 362,785,235 kilograms in 2015-16. Orange production increased by 26m kilograms, or 15 per ccent, to 193,879,528 kilograms in 2015-16. Note that the scope for the 2015-16 Agricultural Census is different to previous ABS rural environment and agricultural collections. Details on these differences can be found on the ABS website.

The population of Australia increases by one person every one minute and 22 seconds, with a current population of 24,586,324. Imagine if all of us were working as a force for positive change – environmental, social and economical. What a fabulous force we would be!

I did also notice that there was a survey on NSW versus Qld rivalry, with the two states making up 52.1 of Australia’s population. I will also put a link to this vital, important survey on our website. Visit centralwestlachlanlandcare.org or go to our facebook page. Until next week, happy Landcaring!