Beef and milk sectors lead English income rise

By ANDREW ARBUCKLE
Published on Friday 27 January 2012 00:00

ALTHOUGH estimated Scottish farm income figures are not due to be released until next week, comparative figures from England published yesterday show substantial rises, particularly in the beef and milk sectors.

According to the estimated figures from Defra’s farm business unit for the 12 months to the end of February 2012, dairy farmers are predicted to see a 27 per cent increase in incomes. Grazing livestock farms should also see incomes improve, with a 30 per cent rise expected for lowland units, but incomes on upland farms will have a more modest 7 per cent rise.

Cereal farmers will see only a marginal increase in their income and those with intensive livestock and higher input feed costs will have suffered, with incomes on pig farms forecast to be down by 20 per cent and on poultry farms by 8 per cent.

The NFU of England and Wales welcomed the figures but expressed their concern over the continued rise in input costs and the financial crisis in the eurozone meant that there was no room for complacency. They estimated last year saw an 18 per cent increase in fuel costs and a 20 per cent rise in fertiliser prices.

For the union, economist Phil Bicknell contrasted the estimates with the performance of the wider economy. “They follow on from the improved confidence that we’ve seen in some farming sectors and build on other recent indicators that have underlined agriculture’s contribution to the wider economy,” he said. “This is undoubtedly positive news for parts of the industry.”

Bicknell also highlighted the massive variation that the overall figures were concealing. “Some parts of the country struggled with drought conditions in 2011. The impacts were relatively localised, but will have affected crop and fodder yields on individual farms.

“The farming industry remains susceptible to a range of factors.

“Even with some of the improvements indicated by these forecasts, we’re still talking about returns on assets in the range of 3 per cent to 6 per cent across farm types.”

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