CANBERRA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- About half of Australia's farmers have made some sort of innovative change to their farming practices, a new study revealed on Thursday.

    An Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) study looked at the proportion of broadacre (broadacre is an Australian term to describe land suitable for crop operations) and dairy farms adopting changes across production, farm and natural resource management.

    Farm business size, farmer education, financial performance and management-intensive practices were analyzed.

    Across all states, around half of all dairy and broadacre farms made at least one innovative change to some extent in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 period.

    Nearly 90 percent of farmers in Queensland and Tasmania made at least one innovative change during the period.

    Financial performance tended to influence broadacre farmers' decisions in updating their cropping machinery and equipment, while dairy farmers tended to introduce new irrigation and water management practices, new pasture types and new fodder conservation and use practices.

    Changes made on broadacre and dairy farms appeared to be motivated by improved income or reduced costs of implementation, or a desire to make changes due to seasonal or high farm input prices.

    A significantly higher percentage of farms in Tasmania (41 percent) and Victoria (39 percent) adopted new irrigation and water management practices compared to other states.

    Adoption of more efficient technologies and management practices is considered a key driver in improving farm productivity and financial performance, ABARE spokesman Terry Sheales said.

    "It is important we have a clear understanding of these new management practices and technologies adopted by farmers, and the reasons why farmers adopt them," Sheales said in a statement.