Introduction

The 2023 June Agricultural Census included new module questions on farm production methods and manure, fertiliser and slurry application. Provisional results from this module were published in October 2023 as part of the main JAC 2023 publication. This report provides final results from the 2023 June Agricultural Census module covering: soil cover, tillage, irrigation, nutrient management, and fertiliser application and storage.

The topics included in the 2023 modules were chosen after internal and external stakeholder feedback. The topics cover several important areas and the information collected will be used to inform policy development and support research, in particular on agriculture greenhouse gas emissions and their mitigation, nutrient management and planning, and current farming practices in Scotland. Stakeholders can feed into this conversation and future module development by contacting the census team.

The data used in this publication can be found here. 

The June Agricultural Census 2023 received 18,269 responses from agricultural holdings, of which 51% (9,490) of these holdings provided information on at least one question in the agricultural production methods and nutrient application module. Further details on response rates for each question are included in the detailed spreadsheet tables.

Results on crop rotation and mineral and organic fertilisers can be found with the main JAC 2023 results here.

Historic data relating to agricultural production methods, fertiliser and manure can be found here. To request data for further analysis across years please contact the agricultural statistics team.

An Accredited Offical Statistics Publication for Scotland

These statistics are accredited official statistics. The Office for Statistics Regulation has independently reviewed and accredited these statistics as complying with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. 

These statistics were accredited in 2013 and the accreditation notice can be found here.

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.  

Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.