Increase in farms in highest profit band

Business performance varies within farm types. There are loss making and high-income farms in all farm types.

Nearly a quarter (24%) of all farms in the sample made over £100,000 in 2022-23. This is an increase of 7 percentage points from figures reported in 2021‑22. Growth in the highest profit band was driven by dairy and cropping farms. Increases in milk and cereal outputs contributed to higher incomes.  

The proportion of farms that were unprofitable was 17%, a slight decrease from 18% reported in 2021‑22.

Within the different farm types, dairy, general cropping, cereal, and mixed farms have large proportions of highly profitable farms. The proportion of farms making over £100,000 increased for all these farm types in 2022-23. However, some of these farms still make a loss. The spread of farm incomes is widest among general cropping and dairy farms in 2022-23.

More LFA and lowland livestock farms have low incomes or make a loss. However, some LFA and lowland livestock farms do have incomes of £100,000 or over.

Figure 9: Farm income distribution by farm type, 2022-23.