Results from the June 2017 Scottish Agricultural Census

Statistics on farming in Scotland.


Table 1c. Agricultural area in hectares, 2007 to 2017

Final Results of the June 2017 Agricultural Census together with June results for the years 2007 to 2016 for comparison

From 2009, data on land use has been obtained from the Single Application Form ( SAF) for holdings claiming Basic Payment Scheme entitlements (previously Single Farm Payments). This has been combined with land use data from all other holdings, collected through June Census forms, to generate overall results.

This change in the underlying data source constitutes a step change in the data series, which is more evident for certain land use categories.

2007 2008 2009 (1) b Step change - use of SAF Data Percentage
change between
2016 & 2017
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 (5) 2016 2017
Fallow (2) 15,085 14,330 22,166 21,934 15,055 15,478 15,831 11,910 33,110 43,008 38,559 -10.3%
Fallow - under 5 years : : : 18,798 10,988 11,306 12,955 7,447 30,061 40,217 34,778 -13.5%
Fallow - 5th year & over : : : 3,136 4,068 4,171 2,875 4,463 3,049 2,791 3,781 35.5%
Set-aside (3)(4) 62,433 17,815 584 z z z z z z z z z
Total crops, fallow, and set-aside 600,667 602,386 586,609 571,895 582,968 588,873 586,761 589,017 592,698 582,243 591,540 1.6%
Grass (5)
Grass - under 5 years 316,026 300,838 415,531 422,623 411,179 428,538 439,061 425,742 b 212,964 210,080 206,254 -1.8%
Grass - 5th year & over 919,123 917,738 945,298 954,646 946,372 896,649 882,165 882,387 b 1,127,964 1,117,854 1,112,587 -0.5%
Total grass 1,235,149 1,218,576 1,360,828 1,377,268 1,357,551 1,325,187 1,321,226 1,308,129 b 1,340,928 1,327,934 1,318,841 -0.7%
Total crops and grass 1,835,816 1,820,963 1,947,438 1,949,163 1,940,519 1,914,059 1,907,987 1,897,146 1,933,625 1,910,177 1,910,381 0.0%
Rough grazing 3,407,194 3,434,016 3,217,955 3,192,860 3,119,241 3,080,483 3,064,184 3,056,855 2,949,100 3,084,581 3,134,754 1.6%
Woodland 279,851 317,341 350,836 399,805 426,101 445,425 466,759 479,359 524,026 502,399 560,145 11.5%
Other land 74,524 74,585 68,689 101,563 139,298 164,147 165,078 162,607 169,668 154,995 149,059 -3.8%
Total sole right agricultural area 5,597,386 5,646,906 5,584,918 5,643,391 5,625,159 5,604,114 5,604,008 5,595,967 5,576,420 5,652,152 5,754,339 1.8%
Common grazings 594,440 593,504 591,901 583,728 583,331 583,686 583,729 584,263 584,247 584,225 584,062 0.0%

(1) From 2009, data on land use has been obtained from the Single Application Form ( SAF) for holdings claiming Basic Payment Scheme entitlements (previously Single Farm Payments)

(2) Information on land that has been fallow for more than five years and less than 5 years was collected for the first time in 2010

(3) Set-aside entitlements under the Single Farm Payment Scheme ceased in 2009.

(4) Note that some crop areas on land attracting set-aside entitlements under the Single Farm Payment Scheme in 2008 may not have been reported on the June Agricultural Census. Conversely, the set-aside estimate could include some land used for non-industrial arable, forage and protein crops.

(5) Change in definitions of grass used in June Agricultural Census to "Rotational grass under 5 years" and "Permanent grassland"

b break in time series

: not available - question was not previously asked on the June Agricultural Census

z not applicable

Contact

Email: agric.stats@gov.scot

Telephone: Central Enquiries Unit 0300 244 4000

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