Scotland’s farms suffer as weather hits output

Crops and livestock affected – but soft fruit thrives

Difficult weather hit the output of almost all Scottish agriculture in the past year, with only strawberries and soft fruit production escaping the effects of its vagaries, according to new figures from the National Statistics Scotland.

Sheep and cattle numbers fell and there were reductions in the areas of cereals and potatoes. Soft fruit is less dependent on weather conditions and saw an increase.

The snow storm in the spring – “storm Emma” – affected sheep numbers, which fell to a five-year low.

The total sheep count dropped by 6% or 392,000, with lamb numbers falling by 8%.

The number of breeding ewes also decreased, by 4%. Cattle numbers have followed a similar trend and are down to 1.76 million, continuing a long-term decline since the 1970s. Both dairy and beef numbers were down slightly.

The Scottish Government’s chief statistician released the results from the June 2018 Agricultural Census which also highlighted the difficult growing conditions the cereal sector faced due to adverse weather.

The data shows the total area of cereals in Scotland dropped by 3% or

12,900 hectares.

The area under barley fell by one per cent or 3,300 hectares and it has been a similar picture for wheat (9%) and oats (2%).

However, rye continued to rise with an increase of 6%. Vegetables used to feed animals have increased for the first time since 2010. This rise of 5% coincided with a decrease in vegetables grown for human consumption for the first time since 2011.

The statistics also showed an estimated increase in poultry numbers of 2% to 14.5m chickens.

This meant an increase of 4% in broiler birds used for meat production, yet for the second year in a row the number of egg-laying birds outnumbered broilers. In addition to these statistics, the number of people estimated to be working in agriculture has decreased by 400 to 66,600.

Rented agricultural land has also fallen to around 22%, its first noticeable drop since 2014. There were more than 11,000 hectares of land rented under the new Modern Limited Duration Tenancy (MLDT) arrangements.