Farm Incomes in England 2014/15

Over the past 12 months profits have generally remained static or declined across many sectors of English agriculture.  These results come from the latest Farm Business Income (FBI) figures released by DEFRA.  They are only estimates at present, so could yet change, but they do correspond to what would be expected.  The data covers the 2014/15 year (which runs to Feb 2015) and so includes the 2014 harvest and Single Payment. 

The chart below shows graphically the performance of the average business in seven sectors of UK agriculture.  FBI is the return to all unpaid labour and on the capital invested in the business.  There are no imputed rental charges or a cost for proprietors’ manual labour so FBI can be thought of as the real-world profit for these businesses.  Very small, part time, farms are excluded from the sample. 

Incomes on Cereals farms are forecast to have increased by around 2% between 2012/13 and 2014/15.  On General Cropping farms the drop was 16%.  After the high in 2013/14 it is no surprise that Dairy incomes fell in the year by 11%, this was largely due to poorer milk prices.  The Grazing Livestock categories also show small increases in returns, with Lowland and LFA farms rising 6% and 14% respectively.  Specialist Pig and Poultry farms have seen profits fall, albeit from a fairly high base; output price increase and lower feed costs saw profits in 2013/14 rise, the 21% and 11% falls respectively are not unexpected. 

FARM BUSINESS INCOME (ENGLAND) (Current Prices) – Source: DEFRA