[csirac2]

The economics of farming certainly do seem different in the US. Is land really that much cheaper/higher-yielding? Is that why hobby farms in the US can break-even on such small areas? Or is the difference just in the subsidies they get? Or is high/consistent-yielding farmland simply locked away from smaller operators in Australia nowadays? A combination of everything?

[fanquake]

Land may be cheaper, but probably not higher yielding. When your buying land your essentially buying rainfall. We could easily find and buy xx'000 acres of really cheap land, but it if only gets 200-300mm of rain every year, your not going to be seeing serious yields. The other thing to remember is that irrigation is impossible for a lot of West Australian farmland.