This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Agricultural census results
12/03/2003
Livestock farming has, in overall terms, seen a downturn in levels of activity according to results from the December Agricultural Survey.
The declines have been in pigs, sheep and poultry numbers.
However, cattle numbers have remained virtually unchanged since December 2001.
The main changes between December 2001 and 2002 are:
- The area of wheat sown has decreased by 10 per cent to 86,000 hectares, however oilseed rape areas increased by 13 per cent and there was little overall change in total crops and grass areas.
- Cattle numbers were unchanged at 1.9 million, but the numbers of sheep fell by four per cent to 5.5 million.
- In the intensive livestock area, the total number of pigs fell by 15 per cent to 487, 000. Poultry numbers fell by eight per cent to 13 million.
- The total number of regular staff employed fell by three per cent, similar to the fall between December 2000 and 2001.
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 2002, the December Agricultural Sample Census covered around 10,000 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.
All figures are rounded to the nearest 1000 except pigs and labour which are rounded to the nearest 100. Figures may not, therefore, add to totals.
6.Percentage figures, which have been calculated using unrounded figures, have been rounded to the nearest 0.1%.