By Nick Marchant, Director, March Talent Partners · Published 25 May 2026 · 5 min read
TL;DR. Australian broadacre cropping just delivered 68.4 million tonnes in 2025-26, the second-largest winter crop on record and 13% above last year (ABARES, March 2026). The record exposes how thin the management bench is at operator level. Corporate growers holding the gain are hiring five roles ahead of need.
Key Takeaways
- 2025-26 winter crop forecast at 68.4Mt, 15% above the 5-year average (ABARES, March 2026).
- The largest 10% of broadacre farms produce 56.3% of national output (ABARES farm survey, 2025).
- Australian agriculture and forestry has the highest monthly job-switching rate of any occupational category at 3.3% (Indeed Hiring Lab, 2025).
- MTP’s rolling 12-month broadacre book: 10 placements across Farm Manager, Assistant Farm Manager, and Cropping Manager roles, weighted to corporate and fund-backed operators.
Why is broadacre cropping 2025-26 a record year that hides a risk?
The 2025-26 winter crop hit 68.4 million tonnes, the second-largest on record and 13% above 2024-25 (ABARES Australian Crop Report, March 2026). Wheat lifted 4% to 35.6Mt. Barley set a record at 15.7Mt. Canola jumped 13% to 7.2Mt. The risk is concentration. The largest 10% of broadacre farms now account for 56.3% of national output (ABARES farm survey, 2025). When a small number of operators run a disproportionate share of the crop, who is running them matters more, not less.
The headline number also hides the regional split. Western Australia and northern New South Wales delivered near-record yields. Southern NSW and parts of South Australia missed the rain and finished 10% below the prior year (ABARES, March 2026). The operators who held the gain across the patchwork had something the others didn’t: management depth that could read each region differently and re-plan in season.
What does record yield demand from broadacre cropping management?
Record yields amplify everything, good decisions and bad. When a 7-tonne wheat crop replaces a 4-tonne wheat crop, every hectare carries 75% more crop. Each management decision is scaled up. Operators that read the season right, sequenced harvest correctly, and held labour through the peak converted yield into margin. The ones that didn’t lost more than they gained. This is why corporate operators are running broadacre cropping as a portfolio rather than a property: management depth becomes a value driver in any year with this much swing in the underlying numbers.
| Crop | 2024-25 (Mt) | 2025-26 forecast (Mt) | Change vs prior |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wheat | 34.2 | 35.6 | +4% |
| Barley | 13.3 | 15.7 (record) | +18% |
| Canola | 6.4 | 7.2 | +13% |
| Lentils | 1.5 | 1.9 (record) | +27% |
| Winter crop total | 60.5 | 68.4 (2nd highest) | +13% |
A record harvest doesn’t fix a thin bench. It exposes it.
Which 5 hires are top broadacre cropping operators making?
Across our broadacre book in the last twelve months, the corporate operators that held the record-yield gain hired the same five roles. They didn’t hire all of them at once. They hired ahead of need, twelve weeks minimum lead time on each. Our placement data: 10 broadacre roles in the rolling 12 months, weighted to Farm Manager, Assistant Farm Manager, and Cropping Manager titles across corporate and fund-backed operators.
1. The Aggregation Manager who runs a multi-property portfolio
For operators running multiple properties within a region, the Aggregation Manager (or Regional Manager at wider scale within a state) is the person who reads conditions across the portfolio and re-allocates capital, machinery, and people in season. This role didn’t exist at scale ten years ago. Most operators we place for now have one, or are building one.
2. The Cropping Agronomy Lead who shifts season-to-season
Internal agronomy is no longer optional at scale. The brief is reading soil moisture, sowing windows, varietal selection, and input pricing as one connected decision (GRDC, 2025). External agronomy advice runs alongside, not instead. Operators we place with an internal agronomy lead make sowing-window calls a week to ten days ahead of operators relying solely on contracted advice.
3. The Assistant Farm Manager bench, 2 deep per property
Of our last 37 placements, 6 were Assistant Farm Managers. Operators are building succession depth, not single hires. Each property carries an AFM ready to step up if the Farm Manager moves on or up. For the role-level lens, see Farm Manager hiring as a sector-mix decision.
4. The Operations Manager who runs the people layer
At 5,000+ ha and 8+ staff, the Farm Manager runs the crop. Someone else runs the roster, the inductions, the WHS, the housing, and the harvest contractor coordination. Operators that promote a 2IC to “Operations Manager” without filling the role they vacated end up with both jobs done badly.
5. The data and precision-ag specialist most operators don’t have yet
Sat imagery, NDVI, yield mapping, autosteer logs, sprayer telematics. The data exists on most corporate operations. Fewer have someone who turns it into in-season decisions. The operators we place who run a precision-ag specialist (often part-time, often shared across aggregations) are the ones whose Farm Managers stay longest.
How are corporate broadacre cropping operators building bench depth?
Three patterns across the corporate operators holding the record-yield gain. They hire from depth, not from need. They lock in a 12-week minimum hire timeline. And they run retention as a system, not a perk: Australian agriculture and forestry has the highest monthly job-switching rate of any occupational category at 3.3% (Indeed Hiring Lab, 2025). Operators without a retention system lose people faster than they can hire them. That cost compounds, see the real cost of a bad hire in agribusiness for the breakdown.
If you are scoping broadacre cropping management hires for the 2026-27 season, talk to March Talent Partners. We place across operational roles to mid-senior management, broadacre, horticulture, livestock, and cotton.
For the package shape on the management seat itself, what corporate broadacre and cotton farm managers actually earn in 2026 sets the bands across single-property cropping, established corporate operations in good country like the Liverpool Plains, and multi-property aggregation roles in remote cotton country.
Frequently asked questions
What is broadacre cropping and how big is it in Australia?
Broadacre cropping is large-scale cereal, oilseed, and pulse production across thousands of hectares, dryland and irrigated. Australia’s 2025-26 winter crop is forecast at 68.4 million tonnes, the second-largest on record and 13% above 2024-25 (ABARES, March 2026). Cropping farms account for 30% of Australia’s broadacre and dairy farm businesses.
Why are corporate broadacre cropping operators hiring more in 2026?
The largest 10% of broadacre farms produce 56.3% of national output (ABARES, 2025). Concentration drives institutional management structures (Aggregation Manager, Operations Manager, Cropping Agronomy Lead), which require deeper hiring pipelines than single-property family operations. Record yields raise the cost of getting any of those layers wrong.
How long does it take to fill a senior broadacre cropping role in Australia?
Our broadacre book shows twelve weeks minimum from brief to placement for Farm Manager and Aggregation Manager roles. Operators that compress to 6 weeks are more likely to see the hire fail inside year one. AHRI’s 2025 figure for cost per failed hire sits at $15,000 to $35,000, so the time saved at the front is lost twice at the back.
Hiring for the 2026-27 season? Talk to us about your broadacre cropping management roles. We place across corporate and fund-backed operators nationally.
