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2009 June Agricultural Census
23/09/2009
Scotland's Chief Statistician today published final results from the 2009 June Agricultural Census
Compared with June 2008, these results show that:
- The total number of cattle fell by 42,333 (2.3 per cent) to 1.812 million. The number of cows in the beef herd decreased by 14,349 (3.1 per cent) and the number of cows in the dairy herd was down by 4,899 (2.5 per cent). There was a decrease in the number of cattle aged under one year of 16,749 (3.1 per cent)
- The total number of sheep fell by 184,828 (2.6 per cent) to 6.9 million. There was a decrease in the number of ewes used for breeding of 70,691 (2.5 per cent) and the number of lambs fell by 79,004 (2.3 per cent)
- The total number of pigs fell by 39,846 (9.1 per cent) to 396,057. The pig breeding herd decreased by 3,680 (10.0 per cent), although there was an increase in the number of gilts to be used for breeding of 1,595 (41.1 per cent). There was a decrease in the number of pigs for meat production of 37,467 or 9.5 per cent
- The size of the poultry flock fell by 496,356 (3.6 per cent), to 13.3 million. There was a decrease in the number of broiler and other birds for meat production of 383,072 (4.5 per cent). The number of fowls for egg production fell by 53,082 (1.3 per cent) and the number of fowls for breeding was down by 59,431 (4.6 per cent)
- There was an increase in the total number of occupiers, spouses and regular staff working on agricultural holdings of 1,461 (2.5 per cent) to 60,025. The number of casual and seasonal staff increased by 701 (11.8 per cent) to 6,650
In 2009, data on land use was obtained from the Single Application Form (SAF) for 24,700 holdings claiming Single Farm Payments. This data has been combined with land use data from all other holdings, collected through June Census forms, to generate overall 2009 June Census results.
This development has lead to a substantial reduction in statistical data collection and an overall improvement in the quality of land use statistics.
The use of SAF data has resulted in a step change in some of the land use results for 2009, especially for rough grazing and grass. This means that trends between 2008 and 2009 for these land use categories do not represent genuine changes in land use, but do represent differences in the way this data has been reported between the 2008 June Census and 2009 SAF. These trends should be treated with caution.
Compared with June 2008, land use results show that:
- The total amount of land used for crops, fallow and set-aside decreased by 15,776 hectares (2.6 per cent) to 586,610 hectares
- Cereal areas decreased by 8,003 hectares (1.8 per cent) to 448,783 hectares. The late harvest last year and wet autumn sowing conditions lead to a reduction in winter cereal areas and an increase in spring cereal areas. Total wheat fell by 21,315 hectares (18.7 per cent) to 92,482 hectares. Total barley increased by 12,226 hectares (3.8 per cent) to 332,160 hectares, which includes a 21.6 per cent decrease in winter barley and a 9.4 per cent increase in spring barley
- Oilseed rape decreased by 4,580 hectares (13.6 per cent) to 29,043 hectares, with all the decrease due to winter oilseed rape areas
- Set-aside entitlements under the Single Farm Payment Scheme ceased in 2009. The results show a decrease in set-aside areas from 17,815 hectares in 2008 to zero in 2009. There has been an increase in fallow land of 7,836 hectares (54.7 per cent) to 22,166 hectares.
- The results show a decrease in rough grazing land of 194,035 hectares (5.7 per cent) to 3.2 million hectares and an increase in total grass land of 145,738 hectares (12.0 per cent) to 1.4 million hectares. These are not considered to be genuine trends and may represent differences in reporting of these land use categories between the June Census and SAF
Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff.