Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture 2015

5. Livestock

5.1 Overview (Table C8)

Table C8 presents livestock numbers for each country in the UK and shows that, in June 2014, Scotland had 1.79 million cattle, 6.69 million sheep, 316,000 pigs and 14.7 million poultry.

5.1.1 Livestock by LFA/non-LFA (Table C9)

Table C9 shows the balance between livestock on LFA and non-LFA holdings in Scotland. It shows that cattle and sheep tended to be located on LFA holdings, with 72 per cent of cattle and 90 per cent of sheep being located on holdings in these areas, reflecting the large areas of grassland and rough grazing in these areas. (LFA accounts for 86 per cent of agricultural land.) In contrast, pigs and poultry tended to be located on non-LFA holdings (81 per cent and 79 per cent respectively) due to their lower dependence on large areas of agricultural land.

5.1.2 Income from livestock (Tables A1, A5)

Livestock (excluding livestock products) accounts for just under 40 per cent of total farm output, being estimated at £1.12 billion in 2014. Chart 5.1, which shows output for finished and store, but excludes subsidies, illustrates that cattle remains the biggest earner for Scottish livestock, accounting for almost £690 million, or 61 per cent of livestock outputs.

Chart 5.1 Output value of livestock (excluding subsidies) 2004-2014

Charts 5.2 and 5.3 illustrate the varying effect of quantity and price. The greatest volume produced was in beef, accounting for almost half of production by weight. Poultry-meat, pig-meat and lamb/mutton are all showing broadly similar levels of production. Beef and lamb prices are much higher than pig and poultry meat, with the price of beef almost doubling over the past decade. Lamb prices have shown some fluctuation over the past few years, and pig prices have risen steadily.

Chart 5.2 Output volume of meat production (dressed carcass weight) 2004-2014

Chart 5.3 Annual average output price of finished livestock 2004-2014

More detail is given in the individual sections that follow.