Thread: Farmer's Median Age now 53

My niece and her husband have just put one of their farms (next door to me, in fact) on the market - he had, over the years, worked to get three farms, having three sons. The oldest, with an agriculture degree, is well into a career aas an agronomist, and is unlikely to go back to farming - his present job (with an agricultural supplier) pays better and is a lot less risky, and shorter hours. The second son is engaged to a lawter who does not want to leave Sydney, and the third one has just married a vet in Geraldton.

I suspect this is a typical story.

It is not just farmers either - the median age of rural doctors is, I believe, even higher. In my own profession (geophysics) I suspect the median age is well over sixty, and the same will apply to many technical professions where technology advances and industry consolidation over the last thirty years has meant few jobs for new entrants to the profession.

Our society has, over the last thirty or forty years, consistently shown that it values non-technical professions and jobs more highly than the technical ones. There are a few exceptions to this, particularly in IT, but I think it is generally true. Similarly, we apparently value non productive occupations such as sports, law, banking, politics, shuffling red tape, entertainment, much more highly than productive ones such as engineering, manufacturing, mining, agriculture, research, medicine.

John

It's a sad old show and the more crap we buy from os is just going to make it worse

Median or mean?

Median is merely the middle number, so if the median age of farmers is 53 and youngest farmer in the population is 18, then the oldest farmer is 89 years old.

Whats so surprising about having farmers with a median age of 53????? My dad is technically a farmer and is 85 so fits in with the statistics.

If the mean (average) age of farmers is 53 and they will all retire at 65, then we do have a problem. (defending upon what is the definition of "farmer" and if there are any exclusions i.e. a farm labourer or farm manager are not included in the definition of farmer. )

Diana

Diana, ask the QFF what message they were attempting to deliver. I am sure they were conveying that the farmers in the community are a mature age group as fewer young people enter the industry.

What is a farmer? Well, the ATO has guidelines about rural properties being a farm or a hobby. So does Social Security. Also, in Western Qld. anyway, graziers do not regard themselves as farmers whom graziers regard as below the salt. I have a friend who calls himself a dairy farmer. He milks 700 thrice daily and grows most of his stock feed on 2500 acres of irrigated blacksoil and sells a lot of grain. I say he is the CEO of a major agricultural corporation, not a dairy farmer. I don't think he gets cow poo on the wellies very often nowadays. He is too busy running a very big business.

It could also be the journalist trying to be smart and used the wrong word.

Given that most farmers over the last few centuries were born on the farm and died on the farm, it's quite possible that the median age has been 53 for decades rising from the 30 year olds or 40 year olds as life expectancy increased.

It is also likely that lots of farmers have their office in the CBD of Melbourne or Sydney and only ever see the farm in photos or attend their hobby on holidays. Lots of tax deductions being a non profitable farmer.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

It could also be the journalist trying to be smart and used the wrong word.

Given that most farmers over the last few centuries were born on the farm and died on the farm, it's quite possible that the median age has been 53 for decades rising from the 30 year olds or 40 year olds as life expectancy increased.

It is also likely that lots of farmers have their office in the CBD of Melbourne or Sydney and only ever see the farm in photos or attend their hobby on holidays. Lots of tax deductions being a non profitable farmer.

I used to sell Range Rovers to "tax farmers" who thought they needed a 4WD to visit their studs or vineyards. RR's were then a very fashionable item amongst medical professionals. I don't think the QFF were including these in their stats. Changes to tax law have made these investments much less popular.

March, 2012

Source: The National Farmers’ Federation

Challenges like the declining number of farm businesses in Australia, the increase in the average age of Australian farmers to 52 (12 years above the national average for other occupations), and the labour shortage that the industry faces, with some 18,000 people having left the sector in the last year alone.

The NFF don't understand statistics, but the ABS do. The MEDIAN age for farmers is 53, not the average. Diana is correct, it's really a meanginless stat as reported. The accompanying information is needed to put it all in context: 1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2012

The important stat is that 71% are over 45.

Cheers,

Adam