Scottish farm business income: annual estimates 2021-2022

Increase in farms in highest profit band

Business performance varies within farm types. There are loss making and high income farms in all farm types.

More LFA and lowland livestock farms have low incomes or make a loss. However, some LFA and lowland livestock farms do have incomes of £100,000 or over.

Among dairy, general cropping and cereal farms there are more farms that are highly profitable, and some farms with very high income. However, some farms still make a loss. The spread of farm incomes is widest among cereal and dairy farms.

The proportion of all farms making over £100,000 was 17% in 2021‑22, up from 11% in 2020‑21. This was mainly due to increases in milk and cereal output. The proportion of farms which were unprofitable was 18%, a slight decrease from 20% in 2020‑21.

Farm incomes are variable from year to year. Among the farms that have been providing us with their data over the last five years, 57% had farm income above zero in each year.

Figure 9: Farm income distribution by farm type in 2021‑22