Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture 2011 Edition

Dairy

FBI decreased by £19,700 (25 per cent) from £78,446 in 2008/09 to £58,476 in 2009/10. Total output decreased by £12,346 (4 per cent), grants and subsidies increased by £6,959 (19 per cent) and total input costs increased by £15,142 (6 per cent).

Livestock output decreased by £10,829 (4 per cent) from £293,754 in 2008/09 to £282,925 in 2009/10. This was due to the large decrease in the value of milk output, which fell by £20,404 (9 per cent) to £214,358. This reflects the fall in milk price between 2008/09 and 2009/10. It can be seen that the average revenue price per litre for farms in the sample fell from 25.6p in 2008-09 to 23.0p in 2009-10. This fall was partially offset by rises in the value of cattle and sheep output, which rose £6,405 (11per cent) and £3,210 (128 per cent) respectively.

Average Single Farm Payment increased by £5,886 (18 per cent) from £33,314 in 2008/09 to £39,503 in 2009/10. Average LFASS payments also increased by £869 (85 per cent), partly due to fact that the average size (in hectares) of the dairy farms in the sample increased by 13 per cent. The overall effect was that total grants and subsidies increased by £6,959 (19 per cent).

Input costs increased by £15,142 (6 per cent) from £267,748 in 2008/09 to £282,890 in 2009/10. The largest increases were for land and building costs where costs rose by £4,299 (17 per cent), labour where costs rose by £3,541 (18 per cent) and machinery depreciation where costs rose by £2,346 (13 per cent).

Average income from diversified activities increased by £829 (58 per cent) from £1,428 in 2008/09 to £2,256 in 2009/10. More information is provided later in the separate section on diversification.

Chart B4(g): Selected outputs and inputs, Dairy

Table B4(g): Average cropping and stocking, output, inputs, and Farm Business Income by type of farm