Most Profitable Farming per Acre in Australia: The Data

The most profitable farming per acre in Australia cannot be read from one official list, because no national table ranks crops by profit. The closest public measure is sales value per acre. On Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for 2024-25, bananas brought about A$22,700 an acre and avocados about A$15,800, against about A$320 an acre for wheat. Those are sales figures, before costs, so a high number does not mean a high profit.

This page ranks eight crops on that sales measure, shows how 100 acres compares with real farm sizes, and gives you a calculator to turn your own costs into a profit figure. All money is in Australian dollars.

Most profitable farming per acre in Australia: what the data shows

We divided the local value of each crop by its area, using the ABS broadacre crops release and the ABS horticulture release, both for 2024-25. Then we converted hectares to acres (1 hectare = 2.471 acres). The ABS publishes both numbers for a limited set of crops, and the table shows eight of them. Rice (about A$2,090 an acre) and maize (about A$970) also have both numbers but are left out, with only about 400 selling businesses each. Vegetables, table grapes and almonds are missing because the release pages give their value but no matching area figure, and some may sell for more per acre than crops in this table.

Avocado and macadamia figures use bearing area. Bananas and the field crops use total crop area. Read the table as a guide to scale, not as a forecast. The ABS calls its avocado, banana and macadamia numbers experimental estimates, and treats all figures in that part of the release as estimates.

Why sales value is not profit

Costs rise with sales value. A banana or avocado block carries far more labour, packing, irrigation and machinery cost per acre than a wheat paddock. Young orchards also earn nothing for some years while the costs keep running. So the gap in profit is likely to be smaller than the gap in sales, and a bad season can erase it. We found no national profit figures that measure this. Treat the ranking as the top line of your budget. The bottom line depends on your own costs, and the calculator further down works that out.

Three things the ranking leaves out

• Land price. Land that suits high-value crops usually costs more to buy or lease. That charge belongs in your sums even if you already own the land, because you could lease it out instead.
• Water. Tree and vegetable crops depend on a secure supply. Check the licence or allocation that comes with the land before you plan around it.
• Volume needed to sell. A small grower may pay more per tonne for freight and packing than a large one, and may have less pull with buyers.

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Sales value per acre by crop

A$ per acre, 2024-25, before costs; selected crops with ABS value and area data

Is 100 acres a big farm in Australia?

No. For broadacre farming 100 acres is small, though for tree crops it is a solid size. At 30 June 2022 the ABS agricultural commodities release counted 369 million hectares of agricultural land and 87,800 agricultural businesses. That works out at about 4,200 hectares, or roughly 10,400 acres, per business. Huge inland grazing properties pull that average up a long way, so it is a poor guide to a typical block. The ABS also warned about lower quality survey responses in that year.

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Average area of each crop per business

Acres of that crop per selling or producing business, 2024-25; selected crops

Crop-level numbers give a better picture. They show the average area each business grows of one crop. Many of these farms grow other crops as well, so this is not whole-farm size.

100 acres is about 40.5 hectares. That is well under the average wheat business’s area of about 1,600 acres, and above the average avocado grower’s area of about 67 acres. The size question and the crop question are the same question: 100 acres is small for grain alone, and big enough for an orchard.

How much money can you make farming 100 acres?

It depends on the enterprise, and the honest range is wide: from a loss to a very good living. Any single figure for 100-acre farms as a group would be a guess, so here is what the published data supports.

• Grain only: at national average sales values, 100 acres of wheat sold about A$32,000 worth of grain in 2024-25, before seed, fertiliser, chemicals, fuel, machinery and land costs. That is a thin base for a household, and it may not pay for its own header.
• Sheep: MLA, quoting ABARES, put the average farm cash income of Australian sheep producers at A$51,000 in 2023-24, down 44% on the year before. Those are whole farms, far larger than 100 acres in general, and a useful warning about how sharply income can move.
• Tree crops: at national average sales, 10 bearing acres of avocados sold about A$158,000 in the table above, but only mature, well-watered trees reach that, after years of set-up costs.
• Leasing out: this gives steady income with little work, set by local demand and land quality. Ask a local agent for current rents.

Use your own numbers in the calculator below to see where your block lands.

Working out your own profit per acre

Start with gross income per acre, take off the costs that move with area, then take off the fixed costs and land charge. Fixed costs matter more on a small farm because there are fewer acres to share them. As an example, a A$15,000 yearly bill for insurance, rates and repairs comes to A$150 an acre on 100 acres, and A$15 an acre on 1,000 acres. That is one reason a small grain block struggles, while higher sales per acre can help an orchard carry those costs.

The example values start near break-even on purpose. They are not benchmarks. Add a wage for your own labour as part of fixed costs if you want a true business result.

Try the numbers for your own farm below.

How to choose a profitable enterprise on 100 acres

Work through these five steps before you buy a tree or a tractor.

1. Test the land. Soil tests, slope, frost history, drainage and water supply rule out many options quickly.
2. Find the buyer first. Name who will buy your product, at what price and how far away they are. Sugarcane without a mill in range is not an option.
3. Budget three seasons. Run a good, an average and a poor year through the calculator. Check you can survive the poor one.
4. Count the labour. Horticulture and on-farm sales take many hours. Decide what you can do yourself and what you must pay for.
5. Check the rules. The business.gov.au agriculture page covers licences, biosecurity, workplace safety, tax and levies. Your state and local council set further rules on land use and water.

This page is general information, not financial, tax or legal advice. Talk to an accountant and a farm adviser before you commit money, and check local rules.

Small acreage farming options that fit 100 acres

• Orchard plus grazing. Plant the best soil to trees, and graze the rest while the trees grow.
• Intensive vegetables on part of the block. A few irrigated acres can sell direct, with the rest in pasture or lease.
• Livestock with direct sales. Selling meat, eggs or wool products yourself can lift the price, but adds processing rules, packaging and marketing time.
• Farm stays and on-farm sales. These use existing buildings and scenery. Check zoning, insurance and food rules first.
• Value-added products. Sauces, jams and dried foods can raise the price per kilo. Food safety rules apply, and the hours add up.

Ideas like these can begin at small scale, so you can test demand before you plant the whole block.

▶ Ten small agriculture business ideas, from microgreens to hens, worms and bees. · 6:03

Why income swings: prices, seasons and bearing years

Yearly income on a small farm can move a long way, and the ABS figures show how. Cattle and calf value rose 33.7% to A$17.1 billion in 2024-25, sheep and lamb value rose 37.7% to A$5.1 billion, and wool fell 17.0% to A$2.3 billion. The ABS links the rise in slaughter to dry weather and strong overseas demand. So a selling price that looks good may reflect a dry season in which pasture ran short.

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National value of cattle, sheep and wool

A$ million, local value, financial years

Crops move too. Avocado production in Western Australia fell 43.9% in 2024-25, and industry feedback to the ABS put this down to alternate bearing, where trees crop heavily one year and lightly the next. Macadamia value fell 10.0% to A$181.8 million in the same year. About 8,500 of the 46,500 macadamia hectares were not yet bearing, which shows how much money sits in trees that are still growing.

Ways to reduce the risk

• Run more than one income. Two or three that do not fall together give steadier cash flow. Grain and sheep can share a dry year, so look for a stream that does not depend on the same rain.
• Secure water. Check dams, tanks, bores and licences. The Bureau of Meteorology drought page tracks rainfall deficiencies and water availability.
• Build soil. Reduced tillage, ground cover and rotation protect the soil that carries you through dry spells.
• Plant shelter. An MLA fact sheet explains that shelterbelts cut wind speed and reduce the chill livestock feel, which can improve survival in cold conditions.
• Sell forward where you can. A contract with a processor or wholesaler can fix part of your price. Read the delivery terms closely.
• Insure. Get quotes for crop, livestock, fire and liability cover, and put the premium in your budget.
• Review every year. Compare each enterprise’s margin, and stop what does not pay. Adding acres before fixing costs and market access can lower profit per acre.

How much money can you make from carbon farming in Australia?

On 100 acres, carbon farming is likely to be a modest extra, not a main income. You earn one Australian carbon credit unit (ACCU) for each tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent stored or avoided in a registered project, according to the Clean Energy Regulator guide on how to participate. The Clean Energy Regulator’s June quarter 2026 market report gives a generic spot price of A$39.03 on 14 August 2026. That is a spot price for traded units, not a guaranteed price for your project.

The arithmetic is simple. 100 acres is about 40.5 hectares. If a project earned credits for 1 tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent per hectare per year, that is about 40 credits, worth about A$1,580 at that price. At 5 tonnes per hectare per year it is about A$7,900. Those two rates are examples for the sum, not estimates for your land. Soil carbon projects also have discounts applied before credits are issued. The real rate depends on method, rainfall, soil and tree species, and you pay for the project’s set-up, measuring, reporting and any agent out of that income.

What a carbon project must do

• Follow an approved method, such as the soil organic carbon sequestration method for grazing or cropping systems, including perennial woody horticulture.
• Be new, so the activity must not have started before the project.
• Go beyond business as usual and not be required by law.
• Be run by someone with the legal right to carry it out and to receive the credits.

The scheme is still changing. The same regulator report says soil carbon registrations have slowed while the response to a review of the 2021 method is finalised, and it lists a proposed cap on credited abatement in that method. Read the current rules at the Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme page and get independent advice before signing a long contract, since carbon projects can tie up land for many years. Paying for trees or soil work only makes sense if the farm gains from them anyway, for example through shelter or better ground cover.

▶ A guide to carbon farming and how it stores carbon in soil. · 5:30

How to make $100,000 farming 25 acres

Do the sum backwards. To sell A$100,000 from 25 acres you need A$4,000 an acre in sales. To keep A$100,000 as profit at a 20% margin you need A$500,000 in sales, or A$20,000 an acre. The 20% is an example, not a benchmark. Compare that with the table at the top of this page: wheat, barley, canola and sorghum fall far short, and even sugarcane and macadamias sit below A$4,000 an acre. The second target asks for sales at around the national banana average.

So A$100,000 of profit from 25 acres means high-value product, sold at or near retail price, with the labour to match. Be wary of examples that multiply a top yield by a retail price across every acre: they ignore the heavy cost of picking and selling.

The routes people try are intensive vegetables or berries under cover, pick-your-own, farm-gate meat and eggs, and processed products. To test one, follow these steps.

1. Write down the yield per acre you can honestly expect, using local growers and your state’s agriculture department.
2. Find what buyers in your area actually pay. Visit markets, and talk to shops.
3. Add up labour, water, inputs, packaging, freight and selling costs.
4. Start on one or two acres and record the results for a full season.
5. Expand only when your records show a margin you can live with.

Tools that help you manage margins

Small farms gain most from tools that save trips and catch problems early, without large spending. Start with good records: a simple spreadsheet of costs and sales by paddock is enough to show which part of the farm pays.

Satellite maps can then show where crops or pasture are falling behind the rest of a paddock. They show a change in plant cover, not its cause, so you still need to walk the spot. The Farmonaut Satellite + AI Farm Monitoring System is one option for this, on web, Android and iOS. Soil tests, moisture probes and shared or contractor machinery are other ways to cut waste without buying more equipment than 100 acres can pay for.

Related pages on our site: profitable farming strategies, carbon credits for UK farmers, carbon footprint monitoring, fleet management, product traceability, satellite data API, API developer documents, large-scale farm management, the mobile app, farm tools and their uses, and US farm income by state.

▶ Six plain steps to start precision agriculture without buying a robot. · 4:18

How we checked the numbers

Crop values, areas and business counts come from the ABS 2024-25 releases and were divided by us, so the per-acre and per-business figures are our own calculations from their data. The whole-farm average uses the ABS 2021-22 release, the last of that series. They are national averages across good and poor growers and regions. We rounded them for the table. The sheep income figure is ABARES as quoted by MLA. Carbon prices come from the Clean Energy Regulator, dated as shown.

FAQ

Can you make money farming 100 acres in Australia?

Yes, with the right enterprise and market, but not from grain alone in a normal case. At national average sales, 100 acres of wheat sold about A$32,000 in 2024-25 before costs. Higher-value crops, direct sales or a mix of incomes give a better chance.

What is the most profitable farming per acre in Australia?

No official table ranks farms by profit. Among the crops with ABS value and area data for 2024-25, bananas and avocados had the highest sales per acre, at about A$22,700 and A$15,800. Costs on these crops are also high.

Is farming profitable in Australia?

It can be, but results move sharply between years. MLA, quoting ABARES, reported average sheep producer farm cash income of A$51,000 in 2023-24, down 44% on the year before. Your land, water, costs and market decide your own result.

Is 100 acres a big farm?

Not for broadacre farming in Australia. The average wheat business grew about 1,600 acres of wheat in 2024-25. For avocados, where the average business had about 67 acres of crop, 100 acres is above average.

How much do farmers make per acre?

Sales per acre ranged from about A$300 for barley to about A$22,700 for bananas in our 2024-25 table. Profit is what is left after costs, so enter your own figures in the calculator to see it.

Can carbon credits replace farm income on 100 acres?

Unlikely. At A$39.03 a credit, a project credited for 5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per hectare per year on 100 acres would earn about A$7,900 before costs. That 5 tonnes is an example rate. Treat carbon as an extra income, and check current scheme rules.