Australian Cropping Practices Survey 1998-1999

1998-1999 survey data details the proportion of Australian broadacre and dairy farms employing specific cultivation methods. The dataset contains 8 columns reporting proportions for traditional cultivation, direct drilling, and minimum tillage practices across Statistical Divisions. It was collected by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences via a supplementary survey interview.

Use Cases

• Analyze regional adoption patterns of conservation cropping by mapping `tcstub_pl`, `ddstub_bu`, and `mtstub_pl` proportions against `Sd name`.
• Compare the prevalence of stubble management methods (ploughed in vs. burnt/cut/grazed) using paired columns like `tcstub_pl` and `tcstub_bu`.
• Assess the relationship between agricultural land area (`Ag_land_ha`) and the adoption rates of different tillage practices across Statistical Divisions.
• Identify regions with high or low adoption of direct drilling (`ddstub_pl`, `ddstub_bu`) for targeted agricultural extension programs.

Strengths

• Data is georeferenced with a defined map projection (Albers Equal-Area Conic) and datum (WGS84) for spatial analysis.
• Provides clear metadata codes (-99999 for metropolitan areas, -88888 for no data) for handling missing values in `Ag_land_ha`.

Limitations

• Dataset is temporally limited to a single survey period (1998-1999), preventing trend analysis.
• Row count and total number of surveyed farms are unknown, limiting assessment of statistical power.
• Data aggregation at the Statistical Division level obscures farm-level variability and local patterns.

Provenance

Source

Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry.

Collection Method

Collected via the Resource Management Supplementary (RMS) survey interview accompanying the ABARE Annual farm survey.

Time Range

1998-1999

Freshness

null

Geography

Australia, aggregated at the Statistical Division (SD) level.