Guidance on completing your census

You have been sent a form as you are the registered owner or tenant of land that has the potential for agricultural use, now or in the future. Although you may not be actively farming the land at present, it is important that we have a full picture of the present activity to help gauge the health of the farming industry as a whole.   

Please complete all sections with information held as at 1 June 2026 unless otherwise directed.

When land is let on a seasonal basis, the census form should be completed by the owner, NOT the seasonal tenant. The seasonal tenant should supply you with details of their land-use. However, do not include their livestock, unless you are managing them on contract.

Completing your form online

The quickest and easiest way to complete your census is online using the Rural Payments and Services (RP&S) website.

Log into your account

Use the following web address to log into your RP&S account: https://account.ruralpayments.org/publicsite/login

If you have more than one business, click on the business name for the Business Reference Number (BRN).

Click on 'Ag Census' near the top of the page. All locations in the business which require an online survey will be listed. Please complete them one at a time.

Register for an account

New accounts are verified by Area Office colleagues, therefore it can take up to 30 days for your account to be activated. You can register for RP&S at the following web address: 

https://account.ruralpayments.org/publicsite/futures/register/

Once your account is activated, the census form will automatically appear in the 'Ag Census' section of your account.

Contacting us

This page has information to help you complete your agricultural census form. 

If you have an enquiry, please contact your local area office. Your local area office will be able to help you update your contact information, changes in ownership, and with issues accessing RP&S.

For support in completing your agricultural census form please email agricsurveys@gov.scot and include your location code. Please note the Agriculture Statistics team cannot help with issues accessing RP&S - please contact your local area office.

Submitting your return

When you have completed all relevant sections of the census, please complete the declaration section and press submit on the online form. If returning a paper form, please use the prepaid envelope provided.

Please complete and return by 30 June 2026.

Section Guidance

The majority of the questions in the agricultural census are asked every year and remain unchanged from one year to the next (for example, those relating to crop areas, livestock, and labour). The modular section of the census form changes annually.

In 2026, the modular sections cover cattle housing, technology and feed supplements, peatlands, and tenancy agreements.

Section 1: Area of location, and Section 2: Seasonal rents

The pre-printed information on your form is taken from the information we hold, as recorded on 1 May 2026.

If any of the pre-printed information is incorrect, please enter the correct information and contact your local area office.

Enter the area, including headlands and ditches, of each crop or collection of crops grown on this location at 1 June 2026. Land being prepared for a crop this year should be returned as under that crop.

Crop areas, for example, under Agri Environment schemes should be included in the relevant category where possible, otherwise enter under ‘other crops’.

Boxes 12 to 17: Glasshouses or walk-in cover

These include greenhouses, polytunnels and any semi-permanent structure crops are grown in.

The crops grown in these structures should be reported in square metres.

To convert square feet into square metres, multiply your area in square feet by 0.0929.

Boxes 18 and 19: Other crops not listed above (excluding grassland)

If you do not have other crops, please leave this section blank.

Box 26: Other land

These include land such as roads, yards, buildings (excluding glasshouses), ponds, derelict land.

Box 27: Total land from Section 3

The total land from, for example, all crops, grasses, rough grazing, woodland and other land entered should be shown in box 27. This figure must agree with the actual area of this location (Section 1, box 3).

Boxes 12 to 17 should be reported in square metres. Please make sure to convert these areas to hectares before adding your areas together in box 27.

To convert square metres to hectares, divide your area in square metres by 10,000.

Include:

• Livestock belonging to you, your workers or family, that are on this location
• Livestock belonging to you, temporarily on someone else’s land but which they are not managing on a contract
• Livestock you are keeping and managing on contract for someone else. If you are holding livestock under a formal “bed and breakfast” contract, please also include them
• Livestock sent for sale on 1 June 2026

Do not include:

• Livestock that are located at other locations recorded under other farm codes, even if a form has not been received for them
• Livestock kept on contract for you by another person
• Livestock temporarily on your farm owned by another person and which you are not managing on contract
• Cattle figures, as we collect these from ScotEID

All cattle information is now collected directly from ScotEID. Please do not include cattle and buffalo figures.

Do not include your share in any Sheep Stock Club; the Club Secretary will complete a return for these sheep.

Do not include any wild birds or wild game.

Box 8: Hives containing a colony of live honey bees

Include both those owned by you or those that are brought in from elsewhere, but only include hives that are on your land on 1 June 2026.

The person(s) or institution with the power of decision-making regarding the normal daily financial and production routines of the business.

Only provide information regarding one person for questions 1 to 5 in Section 9. There is the opportunity to provide information about another occupier in questions 6 to 11.

If you do farm work on more than one location, do not enter yourself or occupier 2 on more than one form.

If there are more than two occupiers who fit the description provided for occupier 1 and occupier 2, please answer for the two occupiers who represent the largest contributions to the legal and financial responsibilities of the farm.

If the farm is run by a partnership or company, enter details of only one of the working partners/directors as the occupier (and occupier 2). Other partners/directors should be entered in Section 10. 

Boxes 4 and 10: Year of birth

Please state your year of birth as ‘YYYY’, for example '1976'.

Boxes 5 and 11: Proportion of time spent working on this location

Part-time work is for less than 39 hours each week.

This section relates to all other persons contracted to work on the location on 1 June 2026 (including those doing office work).

Include:

• Any staff who were sick or on holiday
• Any working partners who were not entered in the previous section
• Any part-time staff who may not have been present due to their work pattern.
• Persons doing farm work, includes those employed to do drainage, ditching, maintenance, repair work and transport of farm goods.

Do not include:

• Non-working partners and anyone else who has already been entered in Section 9.
• Anyone working under Youth Training (unless they were employed and paid for by you), school children, non-farm workers (working on buildings, installing plant or carrying out contract work) and gardeners or estate workers who do no farm work.

Boxes 13 and 14

Casual and seasonal workers are those employed directly by the location to work but doing work of a temporary or seasonal nature. Do not include workers employed by third parties.

Section 11: Non-regular, contract labour and migrant workers

Please note that, unlike Section 10, this relates to the last 12 months, not just 1 June 2026.

Person working days is a way of measuring the amount of working time across a holding, taking into account full-time and part-time work. An example is shown in the table below.

Number of workers and days	Equivalent person working days
3 workers for 5 full days	15 person working days
10 workers for half a day	5 person working days
Total number of person working days	20 person working days

Box 1: Non-family labour employed on non-regular basis

Enter the total number of working days for non-family labour employed on a non-regular basis over the last year. For example, some of these may be those currently employed and included in Section 10 boxes 13 and 14.

Box 2: Agricultural contract labour

This does not include unpaid mutual aid or work done by accounting firms.

A contract farming agreement is not a partnership; it is a joint venture between two parties. The Farmer is engaging the services of the Contractor and this trading position is preserved insofar as tax, VAT, etc. are concerned. Both parties retain their individual identity as farm businesses in their own right.

Boxes 2 to 4

For agricultural contract and migrant workers, please include workers who are employed by a third party, and not any workers who are employed directly by the location.

If you do not have any livestock, please leave this section blank.

Please note that this section does not just relate to 1 June 2026.

Boxes 1 to 3: Cattle housed full-time

Please leave blank if you do not have the particular type of cattle listed.

'Full-time' is 23 to 24 hours a day.

If your cattle are housed full-time, all year round, leave the remaining cattle housing questions (boxes 4 to 12) blank and go on to the technology section.

Boxes 4 to 9: Cattle brought in and let out from housing

Please print the full month in characters, for example 'NOVEMBER'.

Boxes 13 to 18: Technology

If you do not have any of the livestock listed, please tick the 'N/A' (not applicable) box.

Boxes 19 to 35: Feed supplements

Please leave this section blank if this section is not applicable to you, for example you do not have cattle or sheep.

Please leave this section blank if you do not know the use of feed supplements or other feeding systems.

Section 13: Peatlands

Please include areas of peat that are of any depth and surface cover.

Boxes 1 to 6: Attitudes towards peatland restoration

Please complete questons 1 to 6 even if you do not have any areas of peat.

Questions 1 to 6 should only be completed once for all locations. If you have already completed this section on another location, please leave blank and go on to box 7.

Box 7: Any peat on the land at this location

If you do not have any areas of peat at this location, please go on to section 14.

Box 9: Any peat which you think is degraded at this location

If you do not have any areas of peat you think are degraded, please go on to section 14.

Boxes 11 to 16: Areas of degraded peat which you do not plan to restore

Tick all that apply.

Section 14: Tenancy agreements

If you do not rent any land at this location, please go on to the declaration.

The total area rented in on a full tenancy at this location (box 8) should match the total rented area in Section 1 box 2.

Unknown tenancy types

The tenancy type flowchart in the additional guidance can help you identify which tenancy agreement(s) you are likely to hold in the absence of a written tenancy agreement. These may differ from the date you, as tenant, took possession of the lease, particularly if it has been renewed, surrendered, or transferred across generations.

Important information of fixed-duration tenancy extensions

Short Limited Duration Tenancy (SLDT)

In effect from/to	Maximum/minimum term	Typical use
Between 28 November 2003 to present	Five years or less	Agriculture (or grazing or mowing for 364 days or more)

From 30 November 2017, where a SLDT continues for longer than five years, with the landlord’s consent (or by certain statutory continuance), it converts to a Modern Limited Duration Tenancy (MLDT) with a minimum term of 10 years. The start date is deemed to be the date when the SLDT started.

Prior to 29 November 2017, an SLTD could be converted to a Limited Duration Tenancy (LDT) with the landlord’s consent. No new LDTs can be created but existing LDTs can be converted to a MLDT if the parties agree.

If land is let on a series of SLDTs with less than 12 months’ break in between, the lease periods are added together and treated as an extension. Where the total period exceeds five years, the tenancy becomes a MLDT. Prior to 30 November 2017, in these circumstances, the lease became a LDT.

Limited Duration Tenancy (LDT)

In effect from/to	Maximum/minimum term	Typical use
From 28 November 2003 to 21 March 2011	15 years or more	Agriculture
From 22 March 2011 to 29 November 2017	Ten years or more	Agriculture

LDTs created after 29 November 2003 have minimum fixed terms as follows:

• If the tenancy commenced before 22 March 2011, the minimum fixed term was 15 years.
• If the tenancy commenced on or after 22 March 2011 and before 30 November 2017, the minimum fixed term was ten years.

On 30 November 2017, LDTs were replaced by MLDTs for new tenancies. So, no new LDTs were created after this date, but existing LDTs could continue.

If neither landlord nor tenant properly terminates the LDT at the end of its fixed term, the tenancy continues on a cycle of continuations (i.e., renews automatically) on a first short continuation of three years, followed by a second short continuation of three years, and then a third continuation ten years. After that ten-year continuation, the cycle repeats until proper notice is served.

Modern Limited Duration Tenancy

In effect from/to	Maximum/minimum term	Typical use
From 30 November 2017 to present	Ten years or more	Agriculture

MLDTs have a minimum fixed term of 10 years but the landlord and tenant can extend the written tenancy arrangement at any time during that period. If an MLDT is not terminated on proper notice at the end of the contractual term, it will continue for another seven years on a continuous cycle until proper notice is given.

 

If you are completing the census online, please submit your census where you will be given the option to receive an email with a copy of your form for your records.

If you are completing your census on a paper form, please return this using the pre-paid envelope