Notes on content
1 This publication contains data for the June Agricultural Census for the years 1982-2009, except for oilseed rape for industrial purposes grown on set-aside land. See footnote (e) on page 4.
2 Both main and minor holdings are included.
3 In 1997, for the first time, areas given by farmers on their census questionnaires were accepted to more than one decimal place. As the figures in the tables on pages 1 to 9 and 11 are given to one decimal place, some of the totals in these tables may not be exactly equal to the sum of their constituent parts.
4 Minor revisions have been made to the published data for 2003 to 2005. These revisions have been made to correct an error in the programs used to estimate agricultural activity for non-responders. Although most of these revisions are small, they are all in a downward direction. Tables showing the extent of the revisions are available at www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Agriculture-Fisheries/revisions
5 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 the other holdings, collected through June Census forms, to generate overall 2009 June Census results.
This development has led 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 2008 June Census and 2009 SAF.
These trends should be treated with caution.