Economic Report on Scottish Agriculture 2011 Edition

Off-Farm Income

This section presents information on the off-farm incomes of farmers and spouses participating in the Farm Accounts Survey. Participants were asked to indicate into which of ten income ranges the joint off-farm income of the farmer and spouse fell for each of six separate sources of income. The sources of income are listed in the Appendix. As the income information is collected in income ranges rather than absolute values the group averages will be less reliable than for other figures presented in this publication.

Table B21 shows the approximate levels of off-farm income of farmer and spouse by farm type and size. In 2009/10, the off-farm income of farmer and spouse averaged £9,500. Around 60 per cent of this income was earned from 'Off-farm Employment and Self-Employment' with the remaining 40 per cent earned from 'Off-farm Investments, Pensions and Other'. In 2009/10, off-farm income ranged by farm types from £5,500 for Dairy farms to £17,200 for Lowground Cattle and Sheep farms.

Table B21: Sources and levels of non-farming income ⁽¹⁾, 2009/10

(1) As co-operators are asked into which range their non-farming income falls rather than the absolute amount, the figures given here relate to a mid-point of the range. For this reason, the figures should be treated as indicative rather than exact. Income level per farm has been rounded to the nearest £100 and proportions to nearest 5 per cent.

Table B22 shows the distribution of off-farm income by farm type and farm size. It can be seen that there is considerable variation between farms, with 26 per cent of all farms having no income other than that from the farm, and 11 per cent having an off-farm income of £20,000 or more. Different farm types are also seen to have different levels of off-farm income with almost half of Lowground Cattle and Sheep farms (46 per cent) and Cattle and Sheep ( LFA) farms (45 per cent) earning over £10,000 from off-farm income and 41 per cent of Dairy farms earning zero.

Table B22 Percentage distribution of off-farm income, 2009/10