Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture 2011 Edition

Summary of 2009/10 Farm Accounts Survey ( FAS) results

Farm Business Income ³ ( FBI) represents the return to all unpaid labour (farmer, spouse and others with an entrepreneurial interest in the farm business) and to their capital invested in the farm business which includes land and buildings. FBI is designed to capture the return to the entire farm business and therefore also includes income from diversified activities that use farm resources.

Table B1 and Chart B1 show Farm Business Income by farm type, along with information on FAS sample sizes and the corresponding total number of farms in Scotland recorded by the 2009 June Census, above the 0.5 standard labour requirement threshold. These sample and population numbers are used to weight the results to produce overall averages.

Table B1: Farm Business Income by farm type

Chart B1: Farm Business Income by farm type

Overall, FBI has decreased by £4,905 (12 per cent) from £39,291 in 2008/09 to £34,366 in 2009/10. This overall decrease was driven by large falls in the incomes of General Cropping, Specialist Cereal, Dairy and Mixed farms, whilst FBI increased for all other livestock farm types.

A decrease in the value of cereals and potatoes, along with increased input costs, especially on fertilisers, contributed to large decreases in FBI of arable farm types such as Specialist Cereal and General Cropping.

A reduction in the output value of milk was the main contributor to the decrease in the FBI of Dairy farms.

The increase in the output value of cattle and, in particular, sheep contributed to an increase in FBI for all other livestock farm types. The value of single farm payments was also higher than in the previous year for all farm types, due to more favourable exchange rates with the Euro. However, the impact of this increase was greater for LFA livestock farm types, where grants and subsidies make up a higher proportion of total outputs and overall FBI.