Survey estimates

ABARE survey estimates are calculated by appropriately weighting the data collected from each sample farm and then using these weighted data to calculate population estimates.

Sample weights are calculated so that sample estimates of numbers of farms, areas of crops and numbers of livestock in ABARE's regions correspond as closely as possible to known ABS data.

Since the enterprise mix varies from farm to farm, a consequence of this approach is that sample weights differ from farm to farm. Typically, larger farms have small weights and smaller farms have larger weights, reflecting the strategy of sampling a higher fraction of the larger farms than of small farms (larger farms having a wider range of characteristics and accounting for a much larger proportion of total output).

Please note that the numbers in published reports may differ slightly from those extracted from AGsurf due to the continual update of the database including incorporation of accounting data and revision of sample weights.