Farm Incomes in England show a mixed picture for the past year. The main sectors almost all show big changes on the previous year, but in varying directions. The winners were Grazing Livestock and Poultry whilst the Arable sectors, Dairy and Pigs all showed large declines in returns.
The data comes from the Farm Business Survey (FBS). Just released, are forecasts for Farm Business Income (FBI) for the 2020/21 year (the years run approximately from Feb to Feb). Final figures will be released in November. FBI is effectively farm profit. The full set of statistics can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/farm-business-income.
As seen in the table above, both Cereals and General Cropping farms are estimated to show big falls in FBI compared to the previous year. This is perhaps not surprising as the latest figures cover the 2020 harvest which saw reduced planted areas and lower yields. Dairy farm profits have been affected by higher costs, notably feed, even though milk prices were largely stable during the year.
Livestock farms both in the lowlands and uplands have benefitted from much improved prices for beef and sheep. Pig producers had lower sale values. Coupled with rising feed prices this has resulted in a big downwards swing in FBI. Poultry farms have also had to face increased feed prices. In this case however, these have been offset by better egg and broiler values.
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