Scottish farm business income: annual estimates 2024-2025
Farm business level estimates of average incomes for 2024-2025. An Accredited Official Statistics publication for Scotland.
First published: 26 March 2026.
More farms make higher profits
The proportion of all farms making over £100,000 is 17% in 2024-25, up from 13% reported in 2023-24. This is mainly due to an increase in average income on dairy farms.
The percentage of dairy farms making over £100,000 is 67% in 2024-25, up from 43% reported in 2023-24.
Dairy and general cropping farms remain the farm types with the largest proportion of highly profitable farms. However, while some farms are making large incomes, others are making losses.
In recent years, the widest variation in income is seen across general cropping farms. The percentage of general cropping farms making over £100,000 fell to 30% from 35% in 2023-24. The proportion of general cropping farms which are unprofitable more than doubled from 11% to 25%. The average farm in the lower quartile of general cropping made a loss of £20,800 in 2024-25, compared to a profit of £800 in the previous year.
Across all farm types, the proportion of farms which were unprofitable was 29%, a slight increase from 27% in 2023-24
More livestock farms have low incomes or make a loss. However, some livestock farms do have incomes of £100,000 or over, excluding LFA sheep. The proportion of LFA cattle farms making over £100,000 trebled from 5% to 15% in 2024-25.
Business income varies within farm types. There are loss making and high income farms in most farm types.
Figure 10: Farm income distribution by farm type, 2024-25.