Results from the Scottish Agricultural Census: June 2025
Final results from the 2025 June Agricultural Census on land use, crop areas, livestock and the number of people working on agricultural holdings.
Module results on irrigation methods are also included within this publication.
First published: 30 October 2025.
Decline in number of beef cows as dairy cows increase
Over the past decade there has been a 15% decline in the beef breeding herd (aged 2 years and over with offspring), from 436,800 in 2015 to 373,000 in 2025. The dairy breeding herd increased by 3.7% over the same period.
In 2025, there were 373,000 breeding beef cows, a 7.4% decrease compared with the five-year average. Additionally, there were 182,200 breeding dairy cows, a 3.8% increase compared with the five-year average.
Figure 8: Number of beef and dairy breeding herd cows, 2015 to 2025.
Contact
email - agric.stats@gov.scot