Pesticide usage in Scotland: Grassland and Fodder Crops 2025

Introduction

This report presents information from a survey of pesticide use on grassland and fodder crops grown in Scotland during 2025. The crops surveyed included direct sown grass, undersown grass, grass one to four years old, grass over five years old, rough grazing, arable silage, fodder beet, fodder rape, kale and cabbage, maize, stubble turnips, turnips and swedes and other crops for stockfeeding. Information about the uptake of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) measures by growers (including non-chemical control methods) was collected alongside the pesticide usage survey.

The Scottish Government (SG) is required by legislation [1][2] to carry out post-approval surveillance of pesticide use. This is conducted by the Pesticide Survey Unit at SASA, a division of the Scottish Government’s Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate. This survey is part of a series of annual reports which are produced to detail pesticide usage in Scotland for arable, vegetable and soft fruit crops on a biennial basis and for fodder and forage crops every four years. The Scottish survey data are incorporated with England, Wales and Northern Ireland data to provide estimates of annual UK-wide pesticide use. Information on all aspects of pesticide usage in the United Kingdom as a whole may be obtained from the Pesticide Usage Survey Team at Fera Science Ltd or visit the Fera website.

It is important to note that the figures presented in this report are estimates produced from surveying a sample of holdings rather than a census of all the holdings in Scotland. Data were collected from a total of 604 holdings, representing 22%, 6% and 3% of the total fodder, grassland and rough grazing area grown in Scotland respectively. Ratio raising was used to produce estimates of national pesticide usage from sampled data. Therefore, the figures are estimates of the total pesticide use for Scotland and should not be interpreted as exact. To give an indication of the precision of estimates, the report includes relative standard errors. Data tables are not included in this report. All data tables are available to download in Excel format in a separate supporting document.

An Accredited Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

These statistics are accredited official statistics. The Office for Statistics Regulation has independently reviewed and accredited these statistics as complying with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. The Scottish Pesticide Usage reports have been accredited official statistics since October 2014.

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

More information about Scottish Government statistics is available on the Scottish Government website.