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Survey Details and Technical Notes

Updated 20 December 2024

Applies to England

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Survey details

Survey coverage and weighting

The Farm Business Survey only includes farm businesses with a Standard Output of at least €25 thousand (approximately £21 thousand), based on activity recorded in the previous June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture. In 2023/24, the sample of 1,373 farms represented approximately 51,300 farm businesses in England.

Initial weights are applied to the Farm Business Survey records based on the inverse sampling fraction for each design stratum (farm type and farm size). Dataset table 16 from the Farm Accounts in England publication shows the distribution of the sample compared with the distribution of businesses from the 2023 June Survey of Agriculture. These initial weights are then adjusted, using calibration weighting, so that they can produce unbiased estimates of a number of different target variables. More detailed information about the Farm Business Survey can be found on the technical notes and guidance page. This includes information on the data collected, information on calibration weighting and definitions used within the Farm Business Survey.

Accuracy and reliability of the results

As it is impractical to survey the entire population of farms, estimates derived from the Farm Business Survey data are inherently subject to sampling error. This is a core principle in statistical survey methodology, which aims to infer population parameters by obtaining a representative sample through carefully designed sampling techniques. To quantify sampling error and provide a measure of uncertainty, this publication presents 95% confidence intervals for estimated means. These intervals, shown as error bars in bar plots, indicate the range within which we expect the true population mean to lie for 95% of similarly constructed samples. Narrower confidence intervals typically indicate larger sample sizes or less variability within the sample, thereby offering more precise estimates of the population mean. Conversely, wider confidence intervals often result from smaller sample sizes or greater sample standard deviations, signalling less precision. These wider intervals should be interpreted with greater caution. Statistically, a confidence interval provides a plausible range for the true population mean based on the sample data. Specifically, a 95% confidence interval reflects a process that, under repeated sampling, would contain the true population mean in 95% of such intervals, rather than indicating a 95% probability for any single interval to include the population mean.

Classification of survey farms

Two primary classification schemes for farms are used by all UK countries: the type of farming and the size of the farm. In addition, the Farm Business Survey provides breakdowns by several other key characteristics.

Classification by type of farming

From 2010/11, farms have been assigned to a farm type based on the European Commission (EC) classification system based on a farm’s Standard Output (SO) as laid out by Commission Regulation 1242/2008. Whilst the UK is no longer bound by the regulation, to maintain continuity use of this classification system is continuing at present.

From 2023/24, the classification of farms is based on 2017 Standard Output coefficients. The 2022/23 results have been recalculated and presented in this release to allow comparability between 2022/23 and 2023/24. The results published here are therefore not directly comparable with those published in earlier years, which are based on previous standard output coefficients. More details on the impact of the change can be found on the Farm Business Survey Technical notes and guidance page.

Standard Output is a financial measure for the total value of output of any one enterprise, per head for livestock and per hectare for crops. For crops, this is the main product (e.g. wheat, barley, peas) plus any by-product that is sold, for example straw. For livestock it is the value of the main product (milk, eggs, lamb, pork) plus the value of any secondary product (calf, wool) minus the cost of replacement. The measure is based on 5-year averaged coefficients for prices. Averaged prices are applied to reduce the impact of price changes on farm type classifications and are periodically revised leading to series breaks within the published FBS data.

Each farm is assigned a total SO by aggregating the SOs for its agricultural enterprises and assigning a farm type based on the proportion of the total SO derived from different enterprises. The varied nature of the definitions used for the EC particular types of farming does not permit a simple description to be given of all of the main types adopted in the Survey, but the chief characteristics may be summarised as follows:

• Cereals: farms on which cereals, oilseeds, peas and beans harvested dry account for over two-thirds of their total SO (holdings with more than two-thirds of their total SO in set-aside are excluded from the survey results).

• General cropping: farms with over two-thirds of their total SO in arable crops (including field scale vegetables) or a mixture of arable and horticultural crops; holdings where arable crops account for more than one-third of total SO and no other grouping accounts for more than one-third.

• Dairy: farms where the dairy enterprise, including followers, accounts for over two-thirds of their total SO.

• LFA grazing livestock: farms with more than two-thirds of their total SO in cattle and sheep except holdings classified as dairy. A farm is classified as in the LFA if 50% or more of its total area is in the EC Less Favoured Area (both Disadvantaged and Severely Disadvantaged).

• Lowland grazing livestock: farms with more than two-thirds of their total SO in cattle and sheep except holdings classified as dairy. A farm is classified as “lowland” if less than 50% of its total area is in the EC Less Favoured Area.

• Specialist pigs: farms on which pigs account for over two-thirds of their total SO.

• Specialist poultry: farms on which poultry account for over two-thirds of their total SO.

• Mixed: farms where crops account for one-third, but less than two-thirds of total SO and livestock accounts for one-third, but less than two-thirds of total SO. It also includes holdings with mixtures of cattle and sheep and pigs and poultry and holdings where one or other of these groups is dominant, but does not account for more than two-thirds of the total SO.

Classification by size of business

Farm business size in the United Kingdom is measured in Standard Labour Requirement (SLR) rather than by Standard Output grouping or land area. The SLR of a farm represents the normal labour requirement, in Full Time Equivalents, for all the enterprises on a farm under typical conditions. The SLR for a farm is calculated from standard coefficients applied to each enterprise on the farm. The standard coefficients represent the input of labour required per head of livestock or per hectare of crops for enterprises of average size and performance.

Farm size classifications and their SLR bracket

Farm Size	SLR
Spare-time	Less than 0.5 FTE
Part-time	0.5 to less than 1 FTE
Small	1 to less than 2 FTE
Medium	2 to less than 3 FTE
Large	3 to less than 5 FTE
Very Large	5 or more FTE

Less Favoured Area Classification

The Less Favoured Areas (LFA) classification was established in 1975 as a means to provide support to mountainous and hill farming areas. Within the LFA are the Severely Disadvantaged Areas (SDA) and the Disadvantaged Areas (DA). The SDA are more environmentally challenging areas and largely upland in character. The distinction between LFA and non-LFA farms is generally applied to grazing livestock farms.

An interactive map of LFA boundaries in England is available at this link (select Designations > Land-Based Designations > Statutory > Less Favoured Areas (England)), and a static map is at this link.

Farm classification in the Farm Business Survey versus the Census of Agriculture

The average economic and physical sizes of farms as estimated from the Farm Business Survey sample and as recorded in the Census of Agriculture are shown according to type of farming and size in dataset table 16. Such comparisons cannot be exact because there are some differences of detail between classification procedure in the FBS and that used in the analysis of holdings in the June Survey. In the analysis of the June Survey, Standard Outputs are applied to the cropping and stocking as recorded on the survey day whilst in the Farm Business Survey they are applied to the hectares of crop and average numbers of livestock over the year as a whole. Moreover, in the Farm Business Survey, the minimum unit is a whole farm business, which may comprise of more than one holding, while in the June Survey the holdings making up a farm may be treated separately.

Economic performance

Economic performance for each farm is measured as the ratio between economic output (mainly sales revenue) and inputs (costs). The inputs for this calculation include an adjustment for unpaid manual labour. The higher the ratio, the higher the economic efficiency and performance. The farms are then ranked and allocated to performance bands based on economic performance percentiles:

• Low performance band - bottom 25% of economic performers

• Medium performance band - middle 50% of economic performers

• High performance band - top 25% of economic performers

Regional boundaries

As part of the Farm Business Survey, the region a farm is located in is recorded. These regions are based on the International Territorial Level 1 (ITL1) geographical breakdown.

A map of the ITL regions can be found on the ONS Open Geography Portal website at this link.