Annex: Protein Crops

Items included

Items included in protein crops are field peas and beans, sugar beet, forage crops (hay, straw etc.) and other industrial crops. Other industrial crops includes flax, hemp and ‘unspecified crops’. Unspecified crops includes, grass seed, lawn turf and ‘other unspecified crops’.

Crops not calculated in Scotland:

• sugar beet
• other industrial crops: flax, hemp
• mustard

Methodology changes and revisions

Table: Protein crops methdology changes and revisions

Value of output

Value of output = (quantity x price) + support payment

There are currently no support payments directly relating to crop production. 

The following sections outline how quantity and price are derived for different protein crops.

Field peas and beans

Quantity = total area (June Agricultural Census) x average yield (based on industry estimates sourced from the Farm Advisory service: Farm management handbook or The Anderson’s Centre)

Prices (£/tonne) for peas and beans are sourced from The Anderson’s Centre.

Forage crops (Hay, Straw etc)

Hay, straw and silage output (tonnes) were taken from the December Agricultural Survey until 2020. From 2021 onwards, estimates are made by multiplying an estimate for hay area by hay yield estimates based on winter barley yield trends.

Hay and straw (prices are sourced from Great Britain Hay and straw prices | AHDB ).

Prior to 2018 prices were sourced directly from merchants, from 2018 to 2021 prices were sourced from Farmer’s Weekly price reports. From 2022 onwards the Great Britain Hay and straw prices | AHDB are used.

Grass seed

Volume of grass seed production (tonnes) = grass seed area x grass seed yield

Grass seed area (hectares) and yield (tonnes/ha) are obtained from the SASA. 

A price (£/tonne) for grass seed is obtained from SASA. 

Lawn turf

The area of lawn turf comes from the June Agricultural Census. The area is equivalent to the quantity here.

The original estimated price (£/hectare) for lawn turf was provided by an industry contact. Since 2017 the price has been sourced from The Anderson’s Centre.

Other unspecified crops

To calculate the other unspecified crops area (hectares) we take the unspecified crops area (excluding rye) from the June Agricultural Census and take off the areas for grass seed and lawn turf.

Other unspecified crops area = unspecified crops area – grass seed area – lawn turf area.

We take the mixed grain yield (tonnes/ha) as the other unspecified crops yield. Note the mixed grain yield is taken from the spring barley yield.  

We take the mixed grain price (£/tonne) as the other unspecified crops price. Note the mixed grain price is estimated relative to the feed price from AHDB.