What drives farmer decisions?

This project aimed to find out what drives farm management decisions.

Social benchmarking surveys were completed in North Central Victoria; Eyre Peninsula, South Australia; Central West, New South Wales and West Midlands, Western Australia. The report analyses surveys from the first three regions.

The diversity across regions was significant. There was variety in demographics, landholder types, information sources used, knowledge levels and implementation of a range of practices for farmers across farming systems and regions.

However, some key findings were:

• across all regions, the ability to pass on a healthier environment for future generations was the most important value landholders attached to their property.

• in two of the three regions surveyed, less than half of farmers viewed climate change as anthropogenically-induced.

• younger farmers use different information sources and feel less supported than their older counterparts in their agricultural activities.

The data arising from these surveys can inform decision-making and strategic planning for local farming groups, natural resource management (NRM) organisations and the Soil CRC.

A new project has started which will implement the remaining surveys.

Read the full final report of Surveying Farm Practices.