Issue 33
January 2001

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Prairie Grains is the official publication of the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers, North Dakota Grain Growers Association, South Dakota Wheat, Inc. and the Minnesota Barley Growers Assocation.

Copyright
Prairie Grains Magazine
January 2001

Australian Wheat Facts

  • Australia grows mostly hard white wheat for bread and the Asian noodle market, but also grows durum for pasta and some red wheat for feed.
  • Grain is grown in all Australian states, but primarily in a narrow crescent running through the mainland states, known as the wheat belt or the wheat/sheep zone, an area that stretches in a curve from central Queensland, through New South Wales, Victoria and southern South Australia. Western Australia is the largest wheat producing state.
  • The major part of the Australian wheat belt lies within areas that receive about 9 to 15 inches of rain between May and October.
  • There are about 121,000 farms in Australia, of which about 45,000 grow one or more types of grain, with about 25,000 farms that include wheat as one of the main grains produced.
  • Grain production in Australia is essentially a family business, with around 90% of farms owned by either a sole proprietor or a family partnership. Few farmers employ more than one full time assistant, and contractors are often used on a seasonal basis.
  • The average size of an Australian crop farm is about 3,800 acres, with cropland devoted to wheat averaging about 2,250 acres.
  • Australia accounts for only 3% of world wheat production, but about 18% of world wheat trade.
  • Australia is the world’s fourth largest wheat exporter after the United States, Canada, and the European Union.
  • Australia exports about 80% of its total wheat crop each year.
  • Average wheat yields are about 30% higher now than they were in the 1980s.
  • Grain production including wheat, course grains, oil seeds and pulses, is Australia’s most valuable agricultural industry, accounting for about 25% of the value of Australia’s farm output.
  • Research is being conducted on genetically-engineered wheat in Australia, but it will be at least 5 to 10 years before genetically-engineered wheat will be commercially available, and even then, it is not known now if such a product would even be introduced in the marketplace, says AWB Limited.
  • AWB Limited is the single largest wheat futures hedger on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Source: Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics; AWB Limited.

Broad leaves are the distinguishing characteristic of this Australian wheat variety.