Total income from farming: estimates for Scotland 2015-2017

2. Introduction

Total Income from Farming ( TIFF) is an official measure of the net income gained by the agriculture industry in Scotland. It seeks to provide an estimate of the total net income across all agricultural holdings, with a breakdown, at the national level, of the value of farm outputs, costs and subsidies. This is done by collecting the best relevant data available and using it to produce estimates for each element.

In some cases available data provide a complete result, for example, there are accurate data on the quantity and price of all finished cattle, collected from abattoirs – though the expenses related to the sale of these have to be estimated. In other cases the lack of data means results have to be modelled based on whatever data we do have, for example the cull of spent hens is estimated using June and December population figures and estimates on their productive lifespan. Many other elements of TIFF are based on sample surveys, for example the miscellaneous expenses of most farm-types are based on results of the Farm Business Survey.

A full description of the methodology used for each element of TIFF is published online at: www.gov.scot/farmingmethodology2017

This publication contains three new sets of estimates for Total Income from Farming; 2015, 2016 and 2017 (see the note on page 2 on why estimates need to be revised twice). The publication also provides some revised time series for previous years, where methodological changes have been made (see also section 10). Details of changes to the methodology and data since last year's publication, and the resulting changes to the figures, are published online at: www.gov.scot/farmingrevisions2017

We welcome comments on the content and format of this publication, which can be sent to:

email: agric.stats@gov.scot
Tel: 0300 244 9699

We would like to thank Scotland's farmers, and others in the industry, for their cooperation with all of our data collections.