This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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December 2005 Agricultural Census
08/03/2006
The December 2005 Agricultural Census, which aims to give a picture of agricultural activity in Scotland, was published today.
The trends between December 2004 and 2005 show:
- For intensive livestock, the number of pigs rose by half a per cent to 494,500 and the number of poultry rose by 1.5 per cent from 14.4 million to 14.6 million
- The number of sheep fell by three per cent from 5.5 million to 5.3 million. The number of cattle was unchanged, remaining at about 1.9 million
- The area of wheat rose by four per cent from 93,000 hectares to 97,000 hectares. The area of barley was unchainged, remaining at around 56,000 hectares
- The total number of regular staff employed fell by three per cent, and there was a decrease of 12 per cent in the number of casual/seasonal staff. Overall, there was a fall in the number of staff employed (down by around 1000)
The results relate to the annual December sample census of main holdings - i.e. holdings above a certain economic or physical threshold. The returns are completed by farmers, who provide information on the crops and livestock on the land which they own or rent on a permanent basis.
Since 2000 an annual reclassification exercise has been carried out, which results in a number of main holdings being reclassified as minor holdings and vice versa. As these statistics cover main holdings only, there are slight discontinuities in the data since 2000.
In 2005 the December Agricultural Sample Census covered around 11,000 of the 27,000 main agricultural holdings in Scotland. Since these results are based on a sample, the estimates are subject to a degree of uncertainty.