Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture 2015

3. Farm Income

There are two main farm income measures contained in this publication. They are closely related and provide complementary information. Total Income from Farming (TIFF) provides a national estimate of total income across the sector as a whole, with a breakdown of the national value of farm outputs, costs and subsidies. Farm Business Income (FBI) provides a sectorial insight into the incomes of farm businesses for eight different farm types, with estimates of average incomes, outputs, costs and subsidies.

For example, the difference in the way TIFF and FBI are calculated can be seen by considering cereals:

• TIFF estimates the income from cereals across all farms-types to be £381 million. This is gross income from the sale of grain, and does not take into account any of the costs of production, such as seed, and includes all sales irrespective of whether from a specialist cereal farm or a mixed cropping farm or something else. Separately then, TIFF would also calculate, for example, estimates for the cost of seed across all types of farms, about £79 million, as well as all other categories of outputs and costs.
• FBI by comparison produces an estimate of average income on cereal farms of £23,000 per farm, including all the income from those farms, whether from their cereals, other crops or anything else, and taking into account all of their costs.

For more detail please see www.gov.scot/stats/bulletins/01138 and www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/03/9632.