Dealing with salinity in Wheatbelt Valleys - Department of Water

Porter, Bartle and Cooper
Table 3: Distribution of farm debt among WA grain farms as at 30 June 1999
Two common perceptions of wheatbelt farms are
that they are continually growing in area and that the
terms of trade (the ratio of prices received for
outputs to prices paid for inputs) are continually
declining. Over the 1990s these trends were not as
evident as in previous periods. In the South Coast
region it does appear to be the case that farm size is
Terms of trade
120
110
100
90
Debt % of all farms
No debt 5
Less than $20,000 7
$20,000 to $50,000 7
$50,000 to $100,000 17
$100,000 to $150,000 4
$150,000 to $250,000 16
$250,000 to $500,000 27
$500,000 to $1,000,000 11
More than $1,000,000 7
Total 100
increasing (Table 4). However, in other regions
there is no clear evidence that average farm size is
steadily increasing. Over the past decade the period
of high grain prices in the mid–1990s has meant that
the often-quoted declining terms of trade for farmers
has not been as evident or as strong in the 1990s, as
observed in preceding decades (Figure 1).
Table 4: Change in size of WA grain farms during the 1990s
Region
Average size of WA grain farms
(ha)
Change in farm
size (ha)
1992/3 to 1996/7 1996/7 to 1998/9
Eastern 3697 3397 –300
Northern 3119 3108 –11
Central 2029 1871 –158
South-coast 2078 2553 475
1 991/2
1 992/3
1993/4
1994/5
1995/6
1 996/7
Year
1 997/8
1998/9
1999/00
2000/01
Figure 1: Terms of trade for WA grain farms during the last decade
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