Results from the Scottish Agricultural Census: June 2021

Introduction

Crop area and livestock numbers see small rise in challenging year

This year winter planting rose compared with planting in the previous very wet autumn. This was followed by a decrease in spring planting. The area of land used for growing cereals has remained similar to 2020. The area used for planting oilseeds rose by eight per cent compared to last year.

The number of cattle in Scotland has increased slightly on the previous year.
This breaks a ten year decline. A rise in the number of calves held on farms resulted in
the increase.

Sheep numbers have increased since last year. Estimates suggest sheep over one year old not being used for breeding has increased by 39 per cent. An inability to move sheep off farms may have contributed to the increase. Breeding ewe and lamb numbers were both one per cent higher than the previous year.

Growing areas of vegetables, excluding potatoes, for human consumption grew by five per cent. The amount of area used to grow vegetables for stock feed remained stable.

The total workforce on agricultural holdings increased by one per cent to 67,400 people.