Glossary

Agricultural holdings: land and buildings used for horticulture, livestock, grazing, and various other uses. 

Agricultural land: land used for agriculture for the purposes of trade or business.

Agriculture: includes horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming, livestock breeding and keeping, the use of land as grazing land, meadow land, market gardens and nursery grounds, and the use of land for woodlands where that use is ancillary to the farming of land for other agricultural purposes.

Area in sole occupation: area of land for where there are sole occupiers of the land they farm, whether as owner-occupiers or tenants.

Barley: spring and winter barley are sown in Scotland. Most of the barley in Scotland is the spring variety. Spring barley is sown around March. Winter barley is sown in the autumn.

Basic Payment Scheme (BPS): Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) is the largest rural payment scheme providing financial support to the farming industry.

Common grazings: Common grazings are areas of land used by a number of holdings or crofters who hold a right to graze stock on that land.

Gilt: a female pig that has not yet had a litter of piglets.

Hectares (ha): the land measurement used in agriculture. One hectare, or 10,000 square metres, is roughly the full size of a rugby pitch. 

Human consumption: vegetable crops for consumption by humans.

Legal responsibility: the person(s) or institution with the power of the decision-making, regarding the normal daily financial and production routines of the business. 

Less Favoured Area (LFA): In the UK, LFAs have two distinct classifications - the Severely Disadvantaged Area (SDA) or the Disadvantaged Area (DA). They are (mainly upland) areas where the natural characteristics (geology, altitude, climate, etc.) make economic competition difficult.

Livestock: includes any creature kept for the production of food, wool, skins or fur, or for the purpose of its use in the farming of land.

Liveweight pigs: the length and girth of a pig is used to calculate the liveweight of a pig.

Oats: majority of oats grown in Scotland are sown in the spring.

Person working days: the number of workers multiplied by number of days they have worked. This provides an estimate of the number of working days workers have contributed to agricultural tasks.  

Seed potatoes: specifically grown for planting for potato cultivation.

Single Application Form (SAF):  a form required by Rural Payments to determine eligibility for payments under various schemes. Land data were extracted from the Single Application Form (SAF) database for holdings that are claiming under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) 

Sow: an adult female pig that has had one or more litters of piglets.

Standard Outputs (SOs): represent the estimated farm-gate worth (£s) of crops and animals without taking account of the costs incurred in production

Stockfeed: food or fodder for livestock.

Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA): includes grazing areas but excludes woodland and other land such as yards and derelict land etc.

Ware potatoes: grown primarily for human consumption.

Wheat: Scottish wheat is mainly winter sown soft wheats suitable for milling. The Scottish climate does not suit hard wheat varieties.