Scottish Agriculture and Industry Overview Flashcards
What are the Major land uses in scotland?
Almost exclusively rural. 2.5% urban central belt. 79% Agricultural land (6.2Mha). Declined due to woodland & urban expansion. 18% woodland (deer/grouse)
Breakdown Agricultural land use in scotland?
60% rough grazing
20% grass
10% crop or fallow
10% woodland/yard/other
What are the general trends in Agriculture since 1980?
Decline in Arable farming (13% less)
Decline in rough grazing (21% less) = 800,000 ha
Increase in permanent pasture and soft fruit production
What other Agiricultural trends can be seen particularly between 2007-2017?
Woodland on agricultural hodings have more than doubled.
2007: 250k Ha
2017: 550k Ha
What does LFA mean?
-Less favoured area
-if 50%< of the land is assessed as being disadvantaged, and will only support low intensity farming.
Can also be reffered to as ANC (area facing natural constraint).
What percentage of land in scotland
and England is LFA?
Scotland- 86% of ALL agricultural land, which euals 5.6Mha
England-16%
What is the general LFA trend on a Map of scotland?
The East hosts a lot of good, rich land outside of the LFA, whereas the central, west and North are LFA.
What are the MAIN types of farming in scotland?
Livestock
Arable
Mixed e.g.
-veg and soft fruit
-energy crops
Wat are the 11 basic distinguishable farm types?
- dairy
- Horticulture/ Permanent crop
- Poultry
- General cropping
- Pigs
- Cereals
- Mixed
- cattle and sheep LFA
- cattle and sheep (non LFA)
- forage
- other
What is unique about Dairy, Cattle&sheep LFA and Forage farm types?
Dairy- highest standard output per holidng £454,000
Cattle&sheep- Largest by Ha, 3.3MHa
Forage- Highest number of holdings. 21,100.
What is the total area ( in Ha) of Arable crop in Scotland? And name the 3 largest crop examples?
Total Area= 587,000 Ha
Barley- 291,000Ha
Wheat- 110,000ha
Potatoes-279,000
Describe the History of the crop Spring Barley, oilseed rape and potato?
Currently Scotland principle crop (70% of all arable crop).
However, a gradual decline since 1980s and increase in Wheat farming.
Oilseed rape unkmown in 80s, peaked in 90s (70,000ha) and has since dropped back down to 35,000ha in 2010.
Potato farming, very stable farming over the last 40 years.
Describe the history of Livestock farming?
Important part of scottish agriculture, focuses on quality not quantity (e.g aberdeen angus).
General downward trend in cattle. 2.7Million 1974 and 1.8 million 2015.
Sheep farming fluctuating since 30s. 10 million in 1992, 7 million 2011.
What is the biggst change in livestock farming?
Winter feed, such as turnip and hay almost non existent now, replace with Silage.
How much does scotlands agriculture contribute to GDP?`
in 2018, agriculture made up 1% of scotlands 180 billion GDP.
Estimated gross value added (GVA) of 1.3 billion.
What is TIFF?
Total income from farming
official measure of profit minus the cost gained by the agircultural industry.
TIFF has generally incrased but so has the Input costs.
Give examples of the input costs of farming?
Machinery
- Fuel
- repairs
Capital
- borrowing
- owned
chemical spraying vet bills Fencing Storage Seeds soil nutrients labour management land
What input has experienced the largest price rise?
Labour costs and the costs associated with borrowing
What is the FBI?
“farm buisiness income”
average buisiness level measure of farm income in the UK. It varies from year to year depending on price markets, output cost and demand.
What would happen to FBI without subsidies?
60% of farms would make a loss without subsity, average farm losing £7400, and sheep beef LFA losing £27,500
Where does the FBI data come from?
It comes from the FAS- Forestry accounts survey.
Represents economically active farms, not small holdings.
Describe some of the FBI Trends?
Dairy has the largest average FBI.
Diverse activity farms do better, have around 20k higher FBI than those that dont diverse.
Sheep LFA highly dependant on subsity, so have a low income.
Give examples of other sources of farm income?
- Tourism
- mobile phone masts
- grants and subsidies
- wind turbines
Describe the general labour trend in agriculture?
67,000 people and declining work in agriculture in scotland. Only 37% fulltime, and remaining part time and seasonal staff.
Generally decreasing because of machinery replacing labour. Larger turnover requird only possible via machines.
Why has the number and area of land covered by long term leases reduced over time?
Introduction of shorter term leases, and reduction in rented land.
contract farming on the rise, whereby owners do not wish to farm the land themselves
What is the 91 Act tenancy?
A tenancy for one year or more, with full security of tenure and rights.
Give some examples of policy in Agriculture?
Scottish rural development programme
common agricultural policy
What is the common agricultural policy (CAP)?
Supports farmers income through the basic payment scheme. Useful for farms like cereals and beef which rely on subsidies.
