Knowing how productive a farm actually is gives us valuable information for comparisons, benchmarking and long term trends. A key indicator of a farm's value however, is its potential productivity, which measures how well a farm would do given ideal land management. Rather than looking at how productive a farm has been, we're now looking at how productive that farm could be.
Yield gap analysis in Australia shows significant gains can be made in some farming areas.
How are potential yield estimates made?
To estimate potential yield, we use a modelling system developed by CSIRO, which uses weather and climate data, soil characteristics, and crop agronomy. This model takes into account many different management inputs, like planting date, fertiliser application and planting density.
How to use this data
To access productivity data for a given farm in the DAS platform, click that farm's outline on the map, then click the Production tab. Note that the potential yield estimates are made assuming that the crop planted is a cereal crop, which allows for relative comparisons between farms.
Long term average yield. This is the mean yield over the timeframe shown in the chart.
Area used for agriculture. The area on this farm which is used for agriculture, according to our land use data.
Chart. The chart shows the potential yield of this farm over time. You can click or hover over the line to view the yield values at different points in time.
We recommend using this data for the following things:
Comparing potential yield between farms in the same area to get an indication of relative land value.
Assessing the potential yield of a farm in ideal management conditions.
We don’t recommend using this data for:
Estimating actual crop yields historically or into the future