United Kingdom: increased income in pig farms

Average Farm Business Income fell across most farm types in 2012/13 (the exceptions being specialist pig and poultry farms) as the effect of the poor growing season and harvest was felt across both the cropping and livestock sectors.

• For the cropping sector lower yields and quality were offset to some extent by higher prices. However the additional impact of higher costs resulted in a fall in incomes.
• On dairy and grazing livestock farms (lowland and LFA) the impact of higher feed costs was a key driver behind lower incomes.
• For specialist pig and specialist poultry farms, incomes increased via higher output which was only partially offset by higher input costs, particularly for feed.
• The single payment for 2012/13 was on average 12% lower than the previous year due to the pound strengthening against the euro.

Pig farms

On specialist pig farms total output from the agriculture enterprises increased slightly, driven by higher output from the pig enterprise. The increase in costs was slightly less, particularly as feed costs did not increase to the extent expected, the net effect being that average Farm Business Income increased by 8 percent in 2012/13 on this farm type.