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Small sheep farms becoming less viable
12 Nov 2004
The relative productivity of sheep farms has declined over 25 years, a report by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics found. ABARE estimated that productivity on sheep farms had increased by 0.9 per cent a year between 1977 and 2001, which was less than the average two per cent annual growth in productivity growth of the wider economy, and well below the 3.3-per-cent annual improvement by crop farmers. The terms of trade for sheep farmers fell by an average 2.1 per cent a year. Many smaller sheep industry farms were unable to maintain their incomes in the period from 1989 to 2001, ABARE found. The total number of sheep has fallen from a high of 150 million in the late 1980s to about 100 million now, while wool production has fallen by more than one third.
Herald Sun, 12/11/04
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