Farm Business Survey 2021-22: Farm level emissions and nitrogen usage

Farm nitrogen (N) use

Nitrogen balance (kg N surplus per hectare)

Nitrogen balance estimates the size of the nitrogen surplus that might be lost to the wider environment.

Nitrogen balance on the average farm remains stable in 2021-22 and lower than the first estimate in 2019-20. The average farm nitrogen balance is 53.3 kg N surplus per hectare in 2021-22.

Estimates of the average nitrogen balance vary by farm type over the last three years and can be explored in our visual summary.

Figure 3: Average farm nitrogen balance, 2019-20 to 2021-22. Error bars demonstrate the spread of data from the lower to upper quartile.

Nitrogen use efficiency (% N output / N input)

Average nitrogen use efficiency decreased 7% from the high value estimated in 2020-21. In 2021-22 nitrogen use efficency is estimated at 27% for the average farm.

Estimates of nitrogen use efficiency vary by farm output type. Farms engaged mostly in meat and milk production typically have much lower nitrogen use efficiency estimates than arable farms. Livestock based agriculture is inherently less nitrogen efficient than arable agriculture because only a small proportion of the ingested nitrogen by livestock ends up in useful nitrogen-containing produce. Data by farm type can be explored in our visual summary.

Figure 4: Average farm nitrogen use efficiency, 2019-20 to 2021-22. Error bars demonstrate the spread of data from the lower to upper quartile.