Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture 2011 Edition

Detailed Farm Business Income assessment by farm type

This section aims to provide a more detailed assessment of FBI results. Tables and Charts B4(a)-(i), below, provide information on the average outputs, inputs, diversified activity and FBI by farm type and size and show the factors that had the biggest impact on FBI.

The tables also show average area and livestock information which are very important to allow more meaningful comparisons across years. For example, the average cost of feed on a farm will depend, to a large degree, on the number of livestock on the farm. Similarly, FBI trends will be affected by farms with different characteristics entering and leaving the survey. It is therefore important to keep in mind the farm characteristics when comparing outputs, inputs and FBI in different years.

Some of the categories in the tables have been updated from previous years publications to include those factors that impact on FBI but not on Net Farm Income ( NFI), the previous headline measure of farm income. For example, "Labour" no longer includes an imputed amount for unpaid family labour and "Land and Building costs" no longer include imputed rent for owner occupiers. Ownership income and net interest payments have been included under the "Miscellaneous" heading. Diversified activities are shown separately. Further information on the differences between FBI and NFI is provided in Section 9. More detailed analysis of diversified activities is provided in Section 12.