Following on from what yabby said.

One major problem for farmers is the unknown price they will get, if and when their produce/product gets to market.

With many crops being a twice a year event, chances are they can be wiped out by bad weather, or, if they have a good season which results in high yeilds, chances are their competitors have had the same result.

The end result being that the market s flooded and prices drop, often to a point where its simply not worth picking/harvesting.

Meanwhile, they have to find the dollars to fund the expenses, hence one reason why so many inherited farms are now debt ladened, ongoing funding costs with nill income.

Like any business, it s a case of risks V rewards.

The new IR laws have not helped farmers either.

Interesting the ABS has to do a survey to get an inkling of the level of foreign ownership of Australian farms. Why don't we know? Because unlike most other countries we do not require foreign buyers to register or notify their purchases (except where it is over $231 million - which excludes about 99 per cent of farms). Also a random survey is a totally inadequate response - it should have been targeted at recent foreign sale hot spots such as central NSW and western Victoria. It seems David Leyonhjelm knows a thing or two about business but he must have missed the Management 101 lecture which states the golden rule - "You can't manage what you don't measure." We must, at the very least establish a register of all foreign purchases of farm land - only then can we have a meaningful discussion of how we deal with the issue.