Contents

Section 1 Incomes at the farm level: all farm types (Farm Business Survey)

Section 2 Incomes at the farm level: by farm type (Farm Business Survey)

N.B. These tables exclude farms subjected to compulsory cull of livestock for control of Foot and Mouth Disease:

- Dairy
- Cattle and sheep (LFA)
- Cattle and sheep (lowland)
- Cereal farms
- General cropping
- Pigs and poultry
- Horticultural holdings
- Mixed farms

Section 3 Farmers' other activities and incomes (Survey of Personal Incomes)

Section 4 Enterprise gross margins (Farm Business Survey and Special Studies)

Section 5 The structure of the industry (Agricultural census)

Section 6 Impact of Foot and Mouth Disease on UK agriculture

Appendix 1 The Farm Business Survey: supplementary analyses

- Farm incomes
- Dairy farms
- Cattle & sheep (less favoured areas)
- Cattle & sheep (lowland)
- Cereal farms
- General cropping farms
- Pigs & poultry farms
- Horticultural holdings
- Mixed farms
- Bank borrowings and external liabilities

Appendix 2 Special report: farm business use of information technology in England

Appendix 3 Methodology, definitions of terms, notes on tables and on farm classification

Appendix 4Measures of agricultural and farm incomes

Appendix 5 Publications in the series: Special Studies in agricultural economics Other useful publications

Appendix 6 Farm Business Survey provinces

Preface

1. This report is the eighteenth in the series Farm Incomes in the United Kingdom and provides comprehensive analyses of the financial position of farm businesses. In most tables the latest years covered are 2000/01 and 2001/02. Aggregate data for the agricultural industry as a whole are presented in the sister publication Agriculture in the United Kingdom, whereas this publication provides data on individual farm types in the four countries separately.

Foot and Mouth Disease

2. The formative event of 2001/02 was the major outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in England, Wales and Scotland (Northern Ireland had very few cases). The additional data collected by the Farm Business Surveys on the impact of FMD has resulted in changes in layout from previous editions.

3. The financial position of farms involved in the compulsory FMD cull is so different from that of other farms that, for most purposes, it makes little sense to combine results for the two groups. Accordingly, most of the analyses in this volume excludes farms involved in the compulsory FMD cull (the compulsory cull does not include the Livestock Welfare Disposal Scheme). The exceptions are Sections 1 and 6.

4. Section 6 presents some administrative statistics and a limited set of results for those farms in the Farm Business Survey which were involved in the compulsory cull. However, because the sample size for this group is quite small, and not purposively selected, these survey results must be treated with caution.

5. Recognising that there is a demand for information relating to agriculture as a whole, irrespective of which farms were or were not involved in the compulsory FMD cull, key results for all farms are presented in Section 1. Where appropriate, results which exclude farms involved in the compulsory cull are presented alongside, but are colour coded to clearly distinguish them.

General layout of volume

6. Section 1 presents results for all farm types combined;
Section 2 gives results for individual farm types.
Section 3 gives information on agricultural and other income from the Inland Revenue Survey of Personal Incomes, based on a sample of confidential and anonymous tax records. Information on gross margins in Section 4 is also estimated from sample surveys. Section 5 on the structure of agriculture is mainly obtained from the Agricultural Census which relates to the position as at June each year.

Acknowledgement

7. The UK Departments for Environment and Rural Affairs are extremely grateful for the co-operation of farmers who have participated in the surveys. They also acknowledge the continuing work of universities and colleges in carrying out the surveys and the special studies in agricultural economics. Individual farm results for England, Wales and Scotland are held in confidence by the universities and colleges and are anonymous when forwarded to the Departments for analysis. Those for Northern Ireland are collected and analysed by the Department for Agriculture and Rural Development for Northern Ireland.

Note on statistical tables

8. The following points apply throughout:

(i) in some cases figures may not add to the totals shown because of rounding;
(ii) symbols:
– means ‘nil’ or ‘negligible’ (less than half the last digit shown) . . means ‘not available’ or ‘not applicable’;
(iii) figures from the Farm Business Survey are not shown separately when the sample comprises fewer than 20 farms.

More information

9. For further information on this publication please contact Mr John Watson on 020 7238 3285 or write to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Farm and Animal Health Economics Division, Ergon House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR.

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Source: DEFRA - March 2003