Big hours 'donated' by family members to farm businesses, ABS census data

Beef, sheep and grains are where the most family members are putting in the unpaid hours and farm consultants believe it's largely in the form of work in addition to off-farm full time jobs or study.

It's kids working the farm in the school holidays, young adults milking before heading to the office for the day and the retired mum and dads who still come out to the farm to chip in.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data collected in the 2021 census shows that 42,294 people identified as being a contributing family member to an agricultural operation. That figure equates to a quarter of all Australians who answered yes to that particular question.

A contributing family member is a person who works without pay in an economic enterprise operated by a relative. It doesn't necessarily mean they don't have other income.

Construction was the industry that came in second to ag but it had only 18,296 contributing family members.

ALSO IN BEEF:

In the breakdown of ag industries, the 'beef, sheep and grains' category was top of the list at 27,433 contributing family members, miles ahead of all other categories, with fruit and nut tree growing second at just 2940.

Prominent Australian social commentator and business analyst Bernard Salt reports that for beef, the figure represents 29pc of the total workforce.

It's the sector with the highest proportion of workforce categorised as contributing family workers.

In a column in The Australian, he suggested: "Good grazing country seems to bring out the best in multi-generational households running family properties where the kids, maybe a life partner and/or the supposedly retired all pitch in."

Farm business consultant John Francis, Agrista in southern NSW, said producers not paying themselves, or family members, relative to the going rate - which in Agrista's opinion is $100,000 for a full time labour unit in beef - were effectively subsidising the business.

"At a time of higher cash demands, or when you're growing, it's regularly seen but there's no doubt it's widely used to tread water," he said.

"If you don't have a business that can generate sufficient money to pay every worker what they are worth, it's an unsustainable business.

"That's dangerous and the reality is with the two strategies there is rarely distinction."

The ABS data doesn't surprise long-serving national beef consultant Phil Holmes, who says far too many beef producers don't pay themselves properly, let alone contributing family members.

His long-term data shows a large number of beef producers pay themselves less than a third of the average weekly earnings of Australians.

"They justify it by saying 'we get free rent, free fuel and a beast every now and then' but even if all that adds up to $30,000 worth a year, they are still shortchanging themselves," he said.

"Or they say it's a lifestyle choice.

"But in the process of doing that, they are subsidising the economic performance of the farm.

"And the danger is: where's the attraction for the young folk when they come up through that system - how does that generate enthusiasm for taking over?"