The 2 diagrams below show the distribution of broadacre farm cash income for the period 1990-91 to 1992-93. Although all broadacre shows a drop in income in 192-93 the distribution is very similar to previous years. The greatest variation have occurred for "wheat and other crops" and "mixed livestock-crops" both of which show a very irregular curves for 1992-93. The next largest variation occurs for "sheep-beef" but "sheep" and "beef" both have similar distributions to previous years.
All the distributions have a long tail towards high incomes and as would be expected very few farms enjoy these large income levels.
REGIONAL VARIATION IN BROADACRE INCOME AND PROFITABILITY
The patterns of regional variation in 1992/93 are shown in the two diagrams and table below. Patterns of regional variation in the estimated cash income in 1992-93 are shown in the two diagrams below. They show similar information for farm business profit (a better statistic).
Compared with previous Farm Surveys there has been a widespread increase in incomes across broadacre farms. Marked increases in incomes are apparent in the sheep and cropping areas of Western Australia and in the cropping areas of south east South Australia and western Victoria mainly due to the improvement in wheat returns.
This general improvement also translates into farm business profits but they still remain low particularly in drought prone areas. One factor influencing this result has been the destocking by pastoral farms in these areas during 1992-93.
