Term | Definition |
Coefficient of Variation | The standard deviation of the sample expressed as a percentage of the mean of the sample. |
Commission, Deductions & Levies | The commission paid to a third party to market cull cows, bulls, ewes, rams and trading stock. This can be an auction market or marketing co-operative. Deductions are charges levied by the abbatoir to cover welfare and hygiene related costs such as wagon cleaning. Levies are the charges levied by the national marketing organisations (Quality Meat Scotland) to promote the sector and fund research. |
Contracting | Cost of contract work (men and machinery) for silage making, dung/slurry spreading, reseeding operations, etc. They arise less routinely than do materials costs, being a substitute for a farmer's own labour and machinery resources. |
Fixed Costs | Overhead costs associated with the enterprises i.e. those costs not related to the scale of the enterprise within certain limits. For example labour, heat and light, depreciation, etc. These costs will be farm wide costs with only a proportion being allocated on an arbitrary basis to the suckler cow and sheep enterprises. Please note that finance charges were not included in the net margin. |
Gross Margin | The sum of gross output less replacement and variable costs. |
Haulage | The cost of transport onto and off the farm, applied when breeding stock and trading stock are purchased and sold. |
Imputed Rent | Rent calculated on the basis of effective acres. |
Labour | Direct labour includes all hours (hired, family, farmer and spouse) spent on work directly involved with the enterprise (feeding, etc). £15,000 has been imputed for full time family labour. |
LFASS | Less Favoured Area Support Scheme |
Livestock and Crop Sundries | The sundry items necessary to operate a dairy enterprise. For example ear tags, marker spray crop levies, etc. |
Machinery | Includes costs of all tractors, equipment and vehicles used directly for the enterprises and for forage operations (excluding contract work). |
Net Margin | Gross margin less fixed costs. |
Organic Aid | The subsidy received following entry into the Organic Aid Scheme. This can be in the form of either a conversion or maintenance payment. |
Replacement Costs | The costs of providing replacements to the enterprise. |
Sales | Sales of livestock, crops and other products (including wool for ewe enterprises) plus value of stock transferred out to other enterprises. |
Single Farm Payment ( SFP) | Subsidy received via the Single Farm Payment Scheme |
Standard Deviation | Square root of the variance of a population |
SSMM | Special Studies Methodology Manual |
Variable Costs | Those costs attributed directly to and varying in proportion to the scale of a particular enterprise. For example feed costs, veterinary and medicine costs. |
Weighted Average | The average for a variable weighted for the size of the individual herd so that the impact of a herd on the average is related to its size. This reduces the effect rogue results have on the average. Thus, the weighted average for feed costs per ewe/cow would be the total feed costs divided by the total number of ewes/cows in the sample. This is opposed to the sum of the averages of feed costs for the herds in the sample. |