This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
Agricultural Census results
15/10/2003
The
final results from the June 2003 Agriculture Census
were issued today.
· There was little change in the
area of barley (down one per cent), but the area of wheat
fell by nine per cent. The area of oilseed rape rose by 14
per cent.
· The total number of pigs fell
by seven per cent, from 526,000 to 489,000.
· The total poultry flock fell
by seven per cent, or by about a million, to fourteen and a
half million.
· There has been little overall
change in the number of cattle and similarly little change
in the number of sheep. The lambing rate (see note 3 below)
was 1.09 compared with 1.07 in 2002.
· The total number of regular
staff employed fell by two per cent but casual and seasonal
staff levels rose slightly.
The results are derived from the annual June
Census of agricultural holdings. The returns provide
information on the crops and livestock on the land which is
owned or rented on a permanent basis by farmers, and the
labour they employ.
These results cover June 2003
returns for main holdings - i.e. holdings above a certain
economic or physical threshold. For the remaining holdings
(minor holdings) an estimate is included based on the June
2002 Census and previous Censuses.
The lambing rate referred to above is
calculated for a particluar year by counting the number of
lambs as at June in any year divided by the number of sheep
put to the ram as at December of the previous year. It is
not a true physical rate as it excludes lambs slaughtered
or sold live out of Scotland prior to the June Census
rate.