Livestock farms are more reliant on support payments

Support payments play an important role in farm income. Around 72% of all farms made a profit in 2024-25, a decrease of 1% from 2023-24. The proportion of farms profitable without support payments increased by 12 percentage points to 41%.

The importance of support payments varies by farm type. With support there is less variation in the proportion of farms that break even (have income greater than zero). Without support far fewer livestock farms make any profit, especially those in less favoured areas.

Cereal and general cropping farms were the only farm type where the proportion of profitable farms without support payments decreased. All other farm types saw an increase in the proportion of farms which were profitable without support payments. For LFA sheep farms, this rose to 7% from no farms in the previous year.

LFA land is low quality and often very hilly, mostly found in very remote areas. There is less opportunity to do anything else with the land which makes it difficult to do any other activities.

Support payments are a key source of revenue for many LFA farms. Current support payments are intended to allow farms to remain in business and be an active part of their local community.

Figure 8: Proportions of farms which were profitable with and without support payments, by farm type, 2024-25.