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SURVEY RESULTS

Figure 1

Question 1: Number of Owners in the Farm Business

Figure 1 shows the number of owners for the farms surveyed. The number of farms with one owner is 138, 22% of the total sample. The majority of farms in the sample (414 or 64%) have two owners. This perhaps reflects the prevalence of husband/wife or father/son partnerships, especially on livestock farms. Forty-four farms (7%) have three owners, 29 have four owners, while 10 (2%) have more than four owners.

In terms of differences between farm types, kiwifruit and pipfruit orchards exhibit a significantly lower level of single ownership than the rest. Similarly, there are significant differences between the proportions with three or more owners. While 23% of pipfruit orchards and 18% of cropping farms fall into this category, only 2% of dairy farms do.

Question 2: How Many Owners Live On-Farm

Table 2 provides information about the number of owners living on the surveyed farms. Most farms have two owners resident, and this is true for all farm types. There are significant differences between farm types in other categories, however.

The most notable variation by farm type is the high (14%) percentage of kiwifruit orchards with no owners living on site; the average for the other farm types is 4% and this difference is highly significant. The percentage of sheep and beef farms with one owner on-farm (30%) is very significantly higher than the rest (average 19%). The differences between farm types in the other categories are not statistically significant.

Table 2 : Number of Owners Living On-Farm
	Dairy		Sheep and Beef		Pipfruit		Kiwifruit		Cropping		Overall
Owners	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
None	6	5.9	7	2.4	6	7.2	11	13.6	2	3.3	32	5.2
One	20	19.8	89	30.2	15	18.1	12	14.8	16	26.7	152	24.5
Two	75	74.3	180	61.2	51	61.4	55	67.9	32	53.3	393	63.4
Three or More	0	0	18	6.1	11	13.3	3	3.7	10	16.7	43	6.9
Total	101	100	294	100	83	100	81	100	60	100	620	100

Question 3: People Making Up the Family Household

Table 3 : Farms by Number of Adults and Children
	No. of Farms with x Adults		No. of Farms with x Children
Where x =	No.	%	No.	%
None	0		312	49.0
One	46	7.0	79	12.5
Two	461	72.5	110	17.5
Three	76	12.0	87	13.5
Four	40	6.5	37	6.0
Over Four	12	2.0	10	1.5

Table 3 provides information on the composition of farm households. It shows the number of farms in each category of number of adults/children. For example, there were no farms with no adults, although almost half (49%) of farms had no children. Not unexpectedly, most farms fell in the two adult category. The mean number of adults was 2.2, and the mean number of children was 1.2. There was no significant variation by farm type.

Table 4 : Average Ages of Household Members

Average age, where present, of the:
1st adult	49
2nd adult	45
3rd adult	25
1st child	11.5
2nd child	9
3rd child	7

Table 4 gives the average age for various household members. There was no significant variation by farm type.

Question 4: Number of People Supported by the Farm Income

Table 5 : Number of People Supported by Farm Income
	Mean	Median
Dairy	4.07	4.0
Sheep & Beef	3.70	4.0
Pipfruit	4.01	4.0
Kiwifruit	3.05	2.0
Cropping	4.30	4.0

Table 5 shows that most farms surveyed support 4 people. There was no significant difference between farm types.

Question 5: Number of People Working, and Length of Time Worked, On-Farm

Tables 6(a) and (b) provide a variety of data on the number of people working on-farm and the hours worked. Table (a) provides information for household members, while (b) covers other farm workers. All information provided is in averages. For example, the dairy farms in the sample had an average of 1.3 family members working full-time, for an average of 50.3 hours per week. On average overall, 1.3 family members worked full-time for 49 weeks per person; 0.7 family members worked part-time for 33 weeks per person; and 0.4 family members worked on a temporary basis for an average 5.5 weeks per person.

Table 6(a): Family Household
Average number of:		Dairy	Sheep & Beef	Pipfruit	Kiwifruit	Cropping	Overall
Family working fulltime	Mean Median	1.3 1	1.3 1	1.3 1	1.0 1	1.4 1	1.3
Weeks worked full-time per family member		50.3	49.9	48.6	43.5	48.1	49
Family working part-time (<30 hrs/wk)	Mean Median	0.6 1	0.7 0.5	0.6 0	0.7 0	0.9 1	0.7
Weeks worked part-time per family member		42.1	31.6	32.2	21.9	40.3	33
Family working temporarily (contract/seasonal)	Mean Median	0.1 0	0.3 0	0.5 0	1.1 0	0.3 0	0.4
Weeks worked on temporary basis per family member		8.0	5.2	8.0	4.2	4.8	5.5

Table 6(b) Other Workers (including family not in the household)
Average number of:		Dairy	Sheep & Beef	Pipfruit	Kiwifruit	Cropping	Overall
People working full-time	Mean Median	0.7 0	0.4 0	1.2 0	0.7 0	0.6 0	0.6
Weeks worked per full-time worker		43.0	40.5	40.1	23.1	50.6	38.0
People working part-time (<30 hrs/wk)	Mean Median	0.2 0	0.5 0	1.0 0	1.4 0	0.2 0	0.6
Weeks worked per part-time worker		20.8	10.0	15.0	6.1	14.3	11.0
People working temporarily	Mean Median	0.7 0	3.2 1	11.1 7	10.4 6	1.8 0.5	4.6
Weeks worked per temporary worker		5.3	2.1	8.8	4.6	4.0	5.5

The largest difference showing up between farm types is the higher number of temporary workers employed by pipfruit and kiwifruit orchards, reflecting the high labour requirements at harvest, and for other activities such as pruning.

Table 7 : No. of Full-time Equivalent Workers On-Farm by Farm Type
	Mean	Median
Dairy	2.2	2.0
Sheep & Beef	2.5	1.9
Pipfruit	4.4	3.1
Kiwifruit	2.4	1.7
Cropping	2.4	2.1

Table 7 converts all farm labour into the equivalent full-time worker value. The higher labour requirements of pipfruit orchards again reflects the labour-intensive harvest period. There are no significant differences between the amount of labour employed by other farm types.

Question 6: Farm Income and Expenditure

Table 8 : Farm Income and Expenditure Data by Farm Type
	Dairy		Sheep & Beef		Pipfruit		Kiwifruit		Cropping
Mean	$
Gross Revenue	173,817		192,588		264,760		161,880		293,713
Farm Operating Costs	97,303		123,646		187,058		128,833		196,041
Debt Servicing Costs	23,985		18,840		15,327		15,327		40,726
Gross Profit	54,137		53,327		42,219		16,677		61,946
Median
Gross Revenue	150,000		130,000		200,000		112,932		253,000
Farm Operating Costs	78,500		80,000		132,218		103,385		165,000
Debt Servicing Costs	20,000		13,000		14,119		10,105		31,000
Gross Profit	52,250		35,000		37,065		4719		38,500
Range for Gross Revenue
From	40,000		0		7,000		13,140		23,000
To	688,000		3,500,000		1,198,462		1,390,000		1,300,000
Range for Gross Profit
From	-80,000		-142,000		-482,500		-69,391		-188,243
To	240,744		1,531,000		280,000		680,000		340,000

(Please note that the figures for gross farm profit do not add-up exactly from the other figures because not all respondents answered all questions on income and expenditure.)

Table 8 provides data on farm income and expenditure by farm type. Both mean and median averages are given. By either measure, kiwifruit "profit" is significantly smaller than any of the other businesses. Sheep and beef followed by kiwifruit exhibit the largest ranges of both gross revenue and gross profit.

Contact for Enquiries

Rural Affairs Coordinator
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND

Phone: +64 4 894 0675
Fax: +64 4 4 894 0745
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