Table 5: England – Average Livestock Farm Business Incomes 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 Type of Farm - Figures in £
Dairy Grazing Livestock - Lowland
Grazing Livestock - Less Favoured Areas
Specialist Pig Farms
Specialist Poultry Farms Mixed Farms
2011-2012 86,568
31,966 29,205 38,094
46,404 74,078
Source: Farm Accounts in England 2012 - 2013
to verify. The weighting methodology for different types of poultry farms was changed in 2012/13 to improve the accuracy of the results. The role played by the Single Farm Payment in 2013 in underpinning livestock production in England can scarcely by over-stated (Table 6). Even for dairy farmers – and it will be remembered that the data
in Table 6 are averages and take no account of size or performance differences or regional variations, to be considered in a later edition of this publication – almost 46 per cent of their Farm Business Income was made up of the Single Farm Payment. The situation becomes increasingly stark when grazing livestock enterprises are considered; neither in the lowlands nor the Less Favoured Areas did such farms make a surplus on their core agricultural activities and it was left largely to the Single Farm Payment to lift their Farm Business Income into positive territory. Similar considerations apply in the case of mixed farms. It is only in the case of specialist pig and, especially, poultry farms where the Single Farm Payment becomes a relatively insignificant component of Farm Business Incomes – icing on the cake, as it were. Again, it is worth stressing that within the average figures shown
in Tables 5 and 6, there will be considerable variation. For example, more detailed examination of the dairying result shows that more than a
quarter of dairy farms had Farm Business Incomes of less than £25,000 whilst a similar proportion made more than £75,000. This compares with the average of £51,194. Size and regional analysis will follow in a later edition of Feed Compounder; the purpose of the current article is to illustrate, albeit in general terms, the importance and integral nature of the Single Farm Payment to the livestock farming sector of agriculture. This, in a context where words like subsidy are bandied about with little indication that their users have any understanding of the complexity of agricultural economics. Farmers are deemed to be very rich; any compounder will know about the extent to which that is actually the case. And it is worthwhile remembering that, in the current context, we are talking about a subject that is rather important to all of us – food. The Government’s original intention was to transfer 15 per cent
rather than 9 per cent of Pillar 1 funding to Pillar 2. It is to be hoped that, after having read the data in the Farm Business Survey for England, their decision to reduce the 15 per cent to 12 will stand. The Single Payment system is not perfect, far from it. But it does constitute an essential element in many livestock farmers’ domestic economies and, as such, should be seen for what it is.
Table 6: Derivation of Farm Business Incomes for English Livestock Farms in 2012-13 Agriculture Dairy
Grazing Livestock - Lowland
Grazing Livestock - Less Favoured Areas
Specialist Pig Farms
Special ist Poul t ry Farms
Mixed Farms £
% £
% £
% £
% £
% £
%
19,048 37.2
-7,091 -43.6 -8,867 -45.0
26,102 63.8
73,710 78.3
-2,653 -7.0
Source: Farm Accounts in England 2012-2013 FEED COMPOUNDER JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 PAGE 21
Agri-environment and Similar Payments
3,785 7.4
3,760 23.1 9,126 46.3
1,114 2.7
1,190 1.3
6,076 15.9
Diversification out of Agriculture
4,886 9.5
3,957 24.3 1,607 8.2
5,971 14.6
13,155 14.0
8,190 21.5
Single Farm Payment
23,475 45.9
15,642 96.2 17,833 90.5
7,701 18.8
6,111 6.5
26,490 69.5
Farm Business Income
51,194 100
16,268 100 19,699 100
40,888 100
94,166 100
38,103 100
2012-2013 51,194
16,268 19,700 40,889
94,166 38,104
Change in £ -35,374
-15,698 -9,505 2,795
47,762 -35,974
Per Cent Change -40.9
-49.1 -32.5 7.3
102.9 -48.6
% Change as estimated 31 October 2013
-40.5 -48.4
-43.1 7.9
102.2 -48.6
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