This release provides an overview of changes to the Basic Payment and agri-environment payments for farm businesses in England in the first years of the agricultural transition period which began in January 2021. It also provides analysis on farmer’s intentions regarding changes to their business.

The data are sourced from the Defra Farm Business Survey which is used to monitor and evaluate Government policies and to inform wider research into the economic performance, productivity and competitiveness of the agricultural industry. The data are also widely used by the industry for benchmarking.

Key results

• Across all farm types, the average Basic Payment received in 2020/21 (before the start of the agricultural transition) was approximately £28,400, around 55% of total Farm Business Income (FBI). By 2023/24, this figure had fallen to an average payment of £18,300, 40% of the average FBI in that year.
• Comparing the 2023/24 per hectare payment to 2020/21, across all farm types there was a 36% fall in Basic Payment Scheme payments.
• The importance of the Basic Payment varies considerably across individual farm types with grazing livestock and mixed farms the most reliant on the payments in 2020/21. In 2023/24, cereals farms joined these farm types as one of the most reliant on the payments. It should be noted that the relative importance of the Basic Payment can be influenced by the income levels of other cost centres and also overall FBI.
• In 2020/21, average income from the agri-environment cost centre (which includes the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Countryside Stewardship Scheme etc) ranged from £800 for horticulture farms to £10,400 for Less Favoured Area (LFA) grazing livestock farms. In 2023/24, the average return from the agri-environment cost centre had risen to £2,600 for horticulture farms and, at the other end of the scale, £14,700 LFA grazing livestock farms.
• In terms of uptake, within the Farm Business Survey population the proportion of farms with an income from the agri-environment cost centre rose from 49% in 2020/21 to 70% in 2023/24.
• In 2023/24, 29% of farm businesses were planning to make a major change to their business within the agricultural transition period, a similar finding to that in 2020/21. A further 42% had not, nor intend to, make any changes.
• The proportion of farm businesses reporting that they felt too unsure about the future to make specific plans at present was 22% in 2023/24, a fall of 14 percentage points from 2020/21.

Points which apply throughout

1. The Farm Business Survey is the source for all data presented in tables and figures unless otherwise stated.

2. All figures relate to England, unless otherwise stated and, on average, cover a March to February fiscal year, with the most recent year shown ending in February 2024. Fiscal years are shown in YYYY/YY format, for example, the period of 1 March 2023 to 29 February 2024 is shown as 2023/24. To ensure consistency in harvest/crop year and commonality of subsidies within any one Farm Business Survey year, only farms which have accounting years ending between 31 December and 30 April are included in the survey. Aggregate results are presented in terms of an accounting year ending on the last day of February, which is the approximate average of all farms in the Farm Business Survey.

3. All financial figures have been rounded to the nearest £100. All percentages have been rounded to the nearest 1% and have been calculated using the unrounded data.

4. The acronym ‘LFA’ refers to Less Favoured Area. These areas were established in 1975 to provide support to mountainous and hill farming areas. They are areas where the natural characteristics (geology, altitude, climate, short growing season, low soil fertility, or remoteness) make it difficult for farmers to compete.

5. Where dataset tables are referred to in the text, this refers to the ‘Farm Business Changes 2023/24 dataset’ file, which can be found on the publication landing page. Other 2022/23 and 2023/24 data in this release can be found in Farm Accounts in England. Earlier editions of the publication, including 2020/21, are available at Historic Farm Accounts in England.

1 Overview

The data presented in this release are taken from the 2023/24 Farm Business Survey (FBS). Also included are comparisons to the 2020/21 FBS data and the intervening years. The estimates are representative of the survey and its population of farm businesses. They give an indication of the characteristics of the farm businesses who claimed each payment and the average payment values during the early years of the agricultural transition period. They do not cover all eligible Basic Payment Scheme farms (around 88,000 farms) nor all those eligible for the new agri-environment schemes, only farm businesses which are in scope of the FBS (i.e. farms with a Standard Output of more than £21,000 (25,000 euros). All values are based on current prices. For more information on survey coverage see Section 7.

The release also includes information on the changes farm businesses are intending to make during the agricultural transition. These questions, originally asked in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 Farm Business Survey and then repeated in 2023/24, asked farms whether they had any plans for major changes to either their farm management, agricultural or horticultural production, value-added, diversification or environmental activities within the agricultural transition period.

The agricultural transition period started on the 1 January 2021. Between 2021 and 2027 untargeted Direct Payments are being gradually reduced before ceasing completely. At the same time, new support primarily aimed at sustainable farming practices is being introduced.

Farm Business Income (total output generated by the farm business minus total farm costs) can be broken down into four cost centres (agriculture, agri-environment payments, diversification and the Basic Payment) making it possible to analyse the relative contribution of each to average total income. This is particularly useful for monitoring the impact of the progressive reduction to Direct Payments in England and the introduction of new support, such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive. It can also help show if farms are adapting to the changes by increasing activities which fall into the diversification cost centre. For example, enterprises such as tourism, renewable energy, retailing farm produce and renting out buildings. The ability to diversify does however depend to some extent on the characteristics and location of the farm.

A phased reduction of Direct Payments began in 2021 with a progressive scale of reductions applied to total payments, including the Basic Payment, in each year until 2027 (Annex D The Path to Sustainable Farming: An Agricultural Transition Plan 2021 to 2024). From 2024, the Basic Payment Scheme has been delinked from land. The data shown here reflects the situation prior to this when payments were still area based.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) opened for applications on the 30 June 2022. Through the SFI, farmers are primarily paid for looking after the natural environment in the course of their farming. The SFI is captured under the agri-environment cost centre of the FBS along with other new or updated schemes, such as the Countryside Stewardship Scheme.

It is planned to produce further analysis on the agricultural transition as more data becomes available. The majority of the 2022/23 and 2023/24 data in this release can be found in Farm Accounts in England. Earlier editions of the publication, including 2020/21, are available at Historic Farm Accounts in England.

2 The contribution of the Basic Payment Scheme and agri-environment cost centres to Farm Business Income

Figures 2.1 and 2.2 show the relative importance of the Basic Payment and the agri-environment cost centres to Farm Business Income (total output generated by the farm business minus total farm costs) in 2020/21, before the start of the agricultural transition, and 2023/24.

Figure 2.1 Average Farm Business Income (£ per farm) on cropping farms by cost centre, England 2020/21 and 2023/24 (note 1)

Figure notes:

1. Farm typology for 2020/21 is based on 2013 Standard Output (SO) coefficients, while the typology for 2023/24 is based on 2017 SO coefficients. For more information see Section 7.2.
2. The legend is presented in the same order as the bars (read the top row from the left to right, then the bottom row from the left to right), except for mixed farms and all types (2023/24) where the values for the agriculture cost centre are negative.
3. The data shown are the averages across all farm types in the sample, including those that do not have any income within some cost centres.
4. The sample size for pig, poultry and horticulture farms is relatively small with average incomes subject to greater variation.

Across all farm types, the average Basic Payment received in 2020/21 was approximately £28,400 which accounted for around 55% of total Farm Business Income (FBI). By 2023/24, this figure had fallen to an average payment of £18,300, which was 40% of the average FBI in that year. However, the importance of the Basic Payment varies considerably across individual farm types with mixed, grazing livestock and cereal farms most reliant on the payments in 2023/24. The Basic Payment generally makes up a smaller proportion of FBI for horticulture, pig and poultry farms. This is because fewer of these farm types claim the payment: they tend to be smaller in size and more likely to have land that is ineligible for the payments.

It should be noted that the relative importance of the Basic Payment can be influenced by the income levels of other cost centres and overall FBI which returned to more normal levels in 2023/24 following exceptional highs in 2022/23 for some farm types.

Figure 2.2 Average Farm Business Income (£ per farm) on livestock farms by cost centre, England 2020/21 and 2023/24 (note 1)

Figure notes:

1. Farm typology for 2020/21 is based on 2013 Standard Output (SO) coefficients, while the typology for 2023/24 is based on 2017 SO. For more information see Section 7.2.
2. The legend is presented in the same order as the bars (read the top row from the left to right, then the bottom row from the left to right), except for grazing livestock (lowland), grazing livestock (LFA) and all types (2023/24) where the values for the agriculture cost centre are negative.
3. The data shown are the averages across all farms in the sample, including those that do not have any income within some of the cost centres.
4. The sample sizes for specialist pigs and specialist poultry farms are relatively small with average incomes subject to greater variation.

At the all farm level, income from the agri-environment cost centre doubled to £10,600 in 2023/24 compared to the pre-transition level of 2020/21 (Table 4.1). The payment equated to just under a quarter of total FBI in 2023/24 compared to 10% in 2020/21.

As with the Basic Payment, there was variation between farm types (Figures 2.1 and 2.2). Agri-environment payments are a particularly important income stream for LFA grazing livestock farms. On this farm type, payments associated with agri-environment activities equated to almost a third of total FBI in 2020/21, this rose to nearly two thirds of total FBI in 2023/24.

It should be noted that, as with the Basic Payment, the relative importance of the agri-environment cost centre can be influenced by income levels of other cost centres and FBI.

Considering changes to income streams other than the Basic Payment and agri-environment cost centres can also help assess how farms are adapting during the agricultural transition period. Between 2020/21 and 2023/24 the proportion of farms undertaking diversified activities rose from 66% to 71%. Average income from the diversification cost centre at the all farm level was £16,600 in 2020/21, this increased to £26,900 in 2023/24. Full details of diversified income for 2022/23 and 2023/24 can be found in Farm Accounts in England. Data for 2020/21 and earlier years are available at Historic Farm Accounts in England.

3 Changes to the Basic Payment between 2020/21 and 2023/24

Direct payments in England are being phased out between 2021 and 2027. Reductions are being applied to the total payment in each year during this period and this includes the Basic Payment Scheme.

The 2021/22 Farm Business Survey (FBS) captured the first year of the phased reductions where farms saw a minimum reduction of 5% to their Basic Payment.

Overall, the FBS data for 2021/22 (the first year of reductions) shows the average Basic Payment was just 2% lower than 2020/21 at £27,900 (Table 3.1). However, this was partially driven by the average land area for farms in the FBS sample which increased by 6% overall compared to the previous year (and by considerably more for pig farms in the survey, hence their higher Basic Payment in 2021/22). When considered on a per hectare (rather than per farm) basis, the payment was 3% lower in 2021/22 compared to 2020/21 (Table 3.2).

Table 3.1: Average BPS income per farm (£/farm) by farm type, England 2020/21 to 2023/24

Farm type	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23 (note 2)	2022/23 (note 3)	2023/24	% change from 2020/21 to 2023/24
Cereals	41,800	35,900	32,600	31,700	26,100	-38%
General cropping	42,100	49,600	34,300	35,300	25,100	-40%
Dairy	30,000	28,600	21,700	21,600	17,700	-41%
LFA Grazing Livestock	26,700	26,500	19,700	20,900	17,100	-36%
Lowland Grazing Livestock	15,100	16,000	13,800	14,300	10,700	-29%
Pigs (notes 4 and 5)	11,600	16,500	16,700	18,600	15,900	37%
Poultry (note 4)	13,900	15,900	8,800	11,300	11,200	-20%
Mixed	31,400	32,600	26,200	25,900	21,600	-31%
Horticulture (note 4)	3,900	3,900	3,400	3,300	1,700	-56%
All farms	28,400	27,900	22,700	23,100	18,300	-36%

Table notes:

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest £100. Percentages rounded to the nearest 1%.
2. Farm typology based on 2013 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).
3. Farm typology based on 2017 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).
4. The sample sizes for specialist pig, specialist poultry and horticulture farms are relatively small with average incomes subject to greater variation.
5. Between 2021/22 and 2023/24 the average land area for pig farms in the FBS increased, resulting in a higher BPS for this type of farm despite the reducing payment rate.

Table 3.2: Average BPS income per farm (£/hectare) by farm type, England 2020/21 to 2023/24

Farm type	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23 (note 2)	2022/23 (note 3)	2023/24	% change from 2020/21 to 2023/24
Cereals	196	190	156	156	121	-38%
General cropping	192	185	152	154	120	-37%
Dairy	188	182	144	144	117	-38%
LFA Grazing Livestock	193	181	142	147	128	-34%
Lowland Grazing Livestock	178	174	143	144	115	-36%
Pigs (notes 4 and 5)	98	106	136	136	96	-2%
Poultry (note 4)	84	98	77	84	70	-16%
Mixed	186	183	149	149	119	-36%
Horticulture (note 4)	83	78	60	66	60	-28%
All farms	179	174	142	144	115	-36%

Table notes:

1. Percentages rounded to the nearest 1%.
2. Farm typology based on 2013 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).
3. Farm typology based on 2017 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).
4. The sample sizes for specialist pig, specialist poultry and horticulture farms are relatively small with average incomes subject to greater variation.
5. In 2020/21, the survey included a pig farm not claiming the Basic Payment but with a large farm area. This had a lowering effect on the average per hectare payment for pig farms in 2020/21. Additionally, in the last 3 years there has been a larger proportion of pig farms in the FBS receiving the Basic Payment, increasing the average per hectare payment.

In 2023, the third year of progressive reduction to the Basic Payment, a 35% reduction was applied to the first £30,000 of the payment with larger incremental deductions on the bigger payment bands. The average Basic Payment was £18,300 (Table 3.1), a fall of 36% compared to 2020/21 (before the start of the agricultural transition). Comparing the 2023/24 per hectare payment to 2020/21 the fall in Basic Payment was also 36% at the all farm level (Table 3.2).

When analysed by performance bands (based on the ratio of outputs to inputs), the lowest 25% of farms had the smallest Basic Payment. Due to the incremental nature of the reductions (larger reductions for higher payments) they also saw the least reduction (28%) in their average payment between 2020/21 and 2023/24 (Table 3.3).

Table 3.3: Average BPS income per farm (£/farm) by performance band, England 2020/21 to 2023/24

Performance band	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23 (note 2)	2022/23 (note 3)	2023/24	% change from 2020/21 to 2023/24
Low	11,900	12,200	10,500	11,100	8,500	-28%
Medium	27,500	28,000	21,400	22,000	19,000	-31%
High	46,600	43,600	37,400	37,100	26,500	-43%
All farms	28,400	27,900	22,700	23,100	18,300	-36%

Table notes:

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest £100. Percentages rounded to the nearest 1%.
2. Farm typology based on 2013 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).
3. Farm typology based on 2017 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).

A similar picture is seen when comparing average Basic Payment by farm business size (based on Standard Labour Requirement), with part-time, small and medium size farms experiencing the lowest reduction in their average payments between 2020/21 and 2023/24 (Table 3.4).

Table 3.4: Average BPS income per farm (£/farm) by Standard Labour Requirement size band, England 2020/21 to 2023/24

Size band	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23 (note 3)	2022/23 (note 4)	2023/24	% change from 2020/21 to 2023/24
Part-time (note 2)	13,600	13,400	12,500	13,100	9,500	-30%
Small	21,600	21,300	16,700	17,100	14,900	-31%
Medium	29,600	28,200	25,100	25,300	20,700	-30%
Large	40,600	38,900	29,600	29,800	25,200	-38%
Very large	68,700	64,800	50,300	49,600	38,100	-44%
All farms	28,400	27,900	22,700	23,100	18,300	-36%

Table notes:

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest £100.
2. In 2022/23 and 2023/24, there were a small number of spare-time farms in the survey. These have been included in the part-time size band for those years.
3. Farm typology based on 2013 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).
4. Farm typology based on 2017 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).

4 Changes to agri-environment payments between 2020/21 and 2023/24

As Direct Payments reduce during the agricultural transition period, a raft of other payments and grants are being introduced focusing on environmental outcomes and supporting investment on farms. These include the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery schemes and will be recorded under the agri-environment cost centre of the Farm Business Survey (FBS). The current data only cover the early stages of this move, it is anticipated that income in this cost centre will show more changes in the coming years.

In 2020/21, before the start of the agricultural transition, average income from the agri-environment cost centre ranged from £800 for horticulture farms to £10,400 for LFA grazing livestock farms. In 2023/24, the average return from the agri-environment cost centre had risen to £2,600 for horticulture farms and, at the other end of the scale, £14,700 for LFA grazing livestock farms. Cereal and general cropping farms saw the largest value increase in the agri-environment cost centre compared to 2020/21 (Table 4.1).

In terms of uptake, within the FBS the proportion of farms with a positive income from the agri-environment cost centre rose from 49% in 2020/21 to 70% in 2023/24.

Table 4.1: Average income from agri-environment activities per farm (£/farm) by farm type, England 2020/21 to 2023/24

Farm type	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23 (note 2)	2022/23 (note 3)	2023/24	% change from 2020/21 to 2023/24
Cereals	5,400	5,900	11,600	11,200	13,200	144%
General cropping	4,700	13,200	12,400	12,700	11,700	151%
Dairy	5,400	4,700	7,400	7,200	8,200	51%
LFA Grazing Livestock	10,400	12,300	12,900	14,000	14,700	42%
Lowland Grazing Livestock	3,700	5,000	6,600	6,700	8,200	120%
Pigs (note 4)	2,200	3,500	3,600	3,700	7,900	263%
Poultry (note 4)	2,200	3,200	2,200	3,600	7,200	230%
Mixed	6,600	7,400	10,100	9,600	11,500	74%
Horticulture (note 4)	800	1,100	2,100	3,800	2,600	207%
All farms	5,300	6,900	9,200	9,400	10,600	100%

Table notes:

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest £100. Percentages rounded to the nearest 1%.
2. Farm typology based on 2013 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).
3. Farm typology based on 2017 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).
4. The sample sizes for specialist pig, specialist poultry and horticulture farms are relatively small with average incomes subject to greater variation.

Comparing farm performance groups (based on the ratio of outputs to inputs), all groups saw substantial increases to income from agri-environment activities compared to before the start of the agricultural transition. The highest performing farms saw the largest increase in terms of value whilst, on average, low performing farms had the biggest percentage increase; at £3,900 in 2023/24 their agri-environment payments more than doubled compared to 2020/21 (Table 4.2).

Table 4.2: Average income from agri-environment activities per farm (£/farm) by performance band, England 2020/21 to 2023/24

Performance band	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23 (note 2)	2022/23 (note 3)	2023/24	% change from 2020/21 to 2023/24
Low	1,700	2,600	4,000	4,100	3,900	128%
Medium	4,900	6,300	8,800	9,100	10,900	120%
High	9,700	12,100	15,000	15,100	17,000	76%
All farms	5,300	6,900	9,200	9,400	10,600	100%

Table notes:

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest £100. Percentages are rounded to the nearest 1%.
2. Farm typology based on 2013 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).
3. Farm typology based on 2017 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).

When considered by farm business size (based on Standard Labour Requirement), agri-environment payments for part-time farms more than tripled between 2020/21 and 2023/24 to £7,400 (Table 4.3). Across all size bands, farms in the medium category saw the biggest value increase to their payments which rose to an average of £13,000 in 2023/24, an increase of £7,500 (134%) compared to 2020/21.

Table 4.3: Average income from agri-environment activities per farm (£/farm) by Standard Labour Requirement size band, England 2020/21 to 2023/24

Size band	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23 (note 3)	2022/23 (note 4)	2023/24	% change from 2020/21 to 2023/24
Part-time (note 2)	2,300	3,000	5,300	5,600	7,400	220%
Small	5,000	5,600	7,700	8,000	8,400	68%
Medium	5,600	7,100	10,300	10,400	13,000	134%
Large	8,400	10,200	10,200	10,400	13,500	61%
Very large	11,100	15,300	19,800	19,100	18,300	64%
All farms	5,300	6,900	9,200	9,400	10,600	100%

Table notes:

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest £100. Percentages are rounded to the nearest 1%.
2. In 2022/23 and 2023/24, there were a small number of spare-time farms in the survey. These have been included in the part-time size band for those years.
3. Farm typology based on 2013 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).
4. Farm typology based on 2017 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).

5 Farm Business Changes

The 2020/21 and 2021/22 Farm Business Survey (FBS) included a series of questions focusing on the changes farm businesses are intending to make during the agricultural transition period which began in January 2021. These questions were repeated in the 2023/24 survey.

Farm businesses were asked whether they had already made any changes, whether they had any plans for major changes to either their farm management, agricultural or horticultural production, value-added, diversification or environmental activities within the agricultural transition period. The full list of options for planned changes covered by the survey can be found in dataset table 2.2.

Similar questions are included in the Farm Opinion Tracker, with the latest results published on 5th February 2025. The questions are broader, whilst the FBS focuses on specific major changes which may impact the financial performance of the farm.

5.1 Overview

In 2023/24 a new question was included asking if, regardless of their plans for the future, the farmer had implemented any major changes to their farm business since 2020.

Figure 5.1: Percentage of farm businesses which have already made major changes by farm type, England 2023/24

Source: Dataset table 1.1

Figure notes:
1. 95% Confidence Intervals have been presented to show the range where the true value is likely to lie and provides an indication of the degree of uncertainty of the estimate.
2. Due to their small sample sizes, pig and poultry farms have been combined into a single farm type.

At the all farm level, 25% of farms had already made a change (Figure 5.1). Of these, mixed and grazing livestock (lowland) farms had the largest proportion reporting a change at 34% and 30% respectively. Conversely, 16% of LFA grazing livestock farms had made a major change since 2021.

Farm businesses with a younger principal farmer (the individual with the greatest economic and legal responsibility for the business) were most likely to have made a change; of the farm businesses with a principal farmer under the age of 45, 37% had made a major change. In comparison, 18% of farm businesses with a principal farmer over the age of 75 had (dataset Table 1).

Figure 5.2: Percentage of farm businesses planning major changes within the agricultural transition period (2020 to 2027), England 2020/21 and 2023/24

Source: Defra, Farm Business Survey

Figure notes:
1. The legend is presented in the same order as the bars.
2. ‘Major changes’ covers changes to farm management, agricultural or horticultural production, value-added activities, diversification activities, or environmental activities.
3. Farm typology for 2020/21 and 2021/22 are based on 2013 Standard Output (SO) coefficients, while the typology for 2023/24 is based on 2017 SO coefficients. For more information see Section 7.2.

In 2023/24, 29% of farms planned to make a major change to their business within the agricultural transition period (Figure 5.2). This was a negligible change compared to 2020/21 (before the start of the agricultural transition), although there was a slight increase to 32% in 2021/22.

In 2023/24, 22% of farms reported that they felt too unsure about the future to make specific plans at present, a fall of 14 percentage points compared to 2020/21. At the same time, 49% of farms proposed making no major changes to their business, an increase of 14 percentage points on 2020/21.

Taking into consideration whether or not the farm business had already made a major change since 2020, at the all farm level, 13% had made a change and planned to make more, whilst 42% of farm businesses had not and did not intend to (dataset Table 1.2).

Figure 5.3: Percentage of farm businesses planning major changes to their business within the agricultural transition period (2020 to 2027) by farm type, England 2020/21 and 2023/24

Source: Dataset Table 2.1

Figure notes:
1. The legend is presented in the same order as the bars.
2. 95% Confidence Intervals have been presented to show the range where the true value is likely to lie and provides an indication of the degree of uncertainty of the estimate.
3. Due to their small sample sizes, pig and poultry farms have been combined into a single farm type.
4. Farm typology for 2020/21 based on 2013 Standard Output (SO) coefficients. Typology for 2023/24 based on 2017 SO coefficients. For more information see Section 7.2.

In 2023/24, horticulture farms were mostly likely to be planning major changes to their business at 43% of farms (Figure 5.3), an increase of 19 percentage points compared to 2020/21 (the largest increase across all farm types). At 19% of farms, LFA grazing livestock were the least likely to be planning major changes, a fall of 11 percentage points compared to 2020/21.

Figure 5.4: Percentage of farm businesses planning major changes to their business within the agricultural transition period (2020 to 2027) by region, England 2020/21 and 2023/24

Source: Dataset table 2.1

The South West, West Midlands and London & South East regions had the highest proportion of farms with plans for major changes in 2023/24, at 42%, 37% and 30% respectively (Figure 5.4). All of these regions also saw increases to the percentage of farms intending to make major changes to their business, with the South West having the biggest rise between 2020/21 and 2023/24 (15 percentage points).

The remaining regions of England experienced a fall in the proportion of farms intending major changes. The region least likely to be planning changes was the North West, at 16% of farms, this was a decrease of 9 percentage points compared to 2020/21.

Farm businesses proposing to make at least one major change to their business during the agricultural transition period were asked further questions on the specific types of change they were likely to implement.

Table 5.1: Of farm businesses planning major changes within the agricultural transition period (2020 to 2027), the percentage planning each type of change, England 2020/21 to 2023/24

Type of change	2020/21 [Note 2]	2021/22 [Note 2]	2023/24 [Note 3]
Fully or Semi-retire by reducing time spent on farm work or business by at least 50%	41%	43%	30%
Change management control of at least 25% of farmed area or business	34%	27%	20%
Make a significant change to methods of production	27%	25%	18%
Make a significant change to majority (at least 50%) of land or assets	38%	28%	19%
Make significant changes to agricultural enterprises	41%	42%	43%
Make a significant change to value added enterprises	8%	7%	8%
Make a significant change to a diversification enterprise	30%	23%	18%
Make a significant change to land area committed to an agri-environment scheme (including environmental land management), to woodland or other ‘public goods’	26%	24%	44%

Source: Dataset table 2.2

Table notes:
1. Multiple options could be selected by the farmer therefore percentages will sum to over 100%.
2. Farm typology based on 2013 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2). 3. Farm typology based on 2017 Standard Output coefficients (see Section 7.2).

In 2023/24 agri-environment land area and changing agricultural enterprises were the most popular types of planned major change at 44% and 43% of farms respectively. Agri-environment land area was also the only option to substantially increase in popularity between 2020/21 and 2023/24, rising by 17 percentage points.

The least popular option in 2020/21 was changing value added enterprises, at 8% of farms this was little changed on 2020/21.

5.2 Retirement

Figure 5.5: Of farm businesses planning major changes within the agricultural transition period, the percentage planning full or semi-retirement by farm type, England 2020/21 and 2023/24

Source: Dataset Table 2.3

Figure notes:
1. The legend is presented in the same order as the bars.
2. 95% Confidence Intervals have been presented to show the range where the true value is likely to lie and provides an indication of the degree of uncertainty of the estimate.
3. Due to their small sample sizes, pig and poultry farms have been combined into a single farm type.
4. Farm typology for 2020/21 based on 2013 Standard Output (SO) coefficients. Typology for 2023/24 based on 2017 SO coefficients. For more information see Section 7.2.

In 2020/21, general cropping and mixed farms had the highest proportion of farm business planning to retire, at 61% and 51% respectively, while in 2023/24, horticulture and cereal farms were the most likely to have retirement plans (44% and 32% of farms respectively) (Figure 5.5).

Between 2020/21 and 2023/24, dairy and horticulture were the only farm types to see a rise in those intending to retire, increasing by 13 and by 8 percentage points respectively. Across the same period, mixed and general cropping farms saw the largest falls in percentage of farms with retirement plans, decreasing by 37 and by 20 percentage points, respectively.

Specialist pig and poultry farms were amongst the least likely to have plans to retire in both 2020/21 and 2023/24, with just over a fifth of farms having plans in 2023/24.

Farmers who were intending to fully or semi retire were also asked exactly what they proposed to do: fully or semi retire with no changes to existing management, fully or semi retire with changes to existing management, or fully retire and end the business. In 2023/24, a third of farms with plans to retire indicated that they would fully retire and end the business.

5.3 Making significant changes to agricultural enterprises

Figure 5.6: Of farm businesses planning major changes within the agricultural transition period, the percentage planning significant changes to agricultural enterprises, England 2020/21 and 2023/24

Source: Dataset Table 2.4

Figure notes:
1. The legend is presented in the same order as the bars.
2. 95% Confidence Intervals have been presented to show the range where the true value is likely to lie and provides an indication of the degree of uncertainty of the estimate.
3. Due to their small sample sizes, pig and poultry farms have been combined into a single farm type. 4. Farm typology for 2020/21 based on 2013 Standard Output (SO) coefficients. Typology for 2023/24 based on 2017 SO coefficients. For more information see Section 7.2.

In 2020/21, specialist pig and poultry and LFA grazing livestock farms were the most likely to make plans to significantly change an agricultural enterprise, at 65% and 54% respectively. But in 2023/24, this had changed to mixed and general cropping farms with 36% and 41% of farms respectively.

Between 2020/21 and 2023/24 specialist pig and poultry farms saw the largest decrease in the percentage of farms proposing to change agricultural enterprises: a drop of 24 percentage points to 41% of farms. Mixed farms saw the largest rise with an increase of 26 percentage points to 62% of farms.

Farmers who said they planned to make significant changes to agricultural enterprises were also asked what type of changes they were planning. The options were: start a new agricultural enterprise, end an agricultural enterprise, increase production on an agricultural enterprise, and decrease production on an agricultural enterprise. Multiple options could be selected.

The most popular option in 2023/24, planned by 36% of these farms, was ending an agricultural enterprise. Only 15% of farms planned to start a new agricultural enterprise. Full details can be found in dataset Table 2.2.

5.4 Making a significant change to the majority of land and/or assets

Figure 5.7: Of farm businesses planning major changes within the agricultural transition period, the percentage planning significant changes to the majority of land or assets, England 2020/21 and 2023/24

Source: Dataset table 2.5

Figure notes:
1. The legend is presented in the same order as the bars.
2. 95% Confidence Intervals have been presented to show the range where the true value is likely to lie and provides an indication of the degree of uncertainty of the estimate.
3. Due to their small sample sizes, pig and poultry farms have been combined into a single farm type.
4. Farm typology for 2020/21 based on 2013 Standard Output (SO) coefficients. Typology for 2023/24 based on 2017 SO coefficients. For more information see Section 7.2.

In 2023/24, 19% of farms planned to make significant changes to the majority of their land or assets within the agricultural transition period (Figure 5.7). The highest percentage was seen in horticulture farms, at 41% of farms (an increase of 3 percentage points compared to 2020/21).

Comparatively, specialist pig and poultry farms had the lowest percentage intending to make major land or asset changes at 8% of farms. This was a decrease of 39 percentage points compared to 2020/21, the largest decrease between 2020/21 and 2023/24 of all farm types.

Figure 5.8: Of farm businesses planning significant changes to the majority of land or assets within the agricultural transition period, the percentage planning each type of change, England 2020/21 and 2023/24

Source: Dataset table 2.2

Figure notes:
1. The legend is presented in the same order as the bars.
2. 95% Confidence Intervals have been presented to show the range where the true value is likely to lie and provides an indication of the degree of uncertainty of the estimate.

Farmers who intended to make significant changes to the majority of their land or assets were also given options for the type of changes they were proposing (Figure 5.8). Multiple options could be selected.

In 2023/24, the most popular option, at 38% of farms, was renting out land or assets. Conversely, just 5% of farms proposed to contract farm additional land or assets; this was also the least popular option in 2020/21.

6 What you need to know about this release

6.1 Availability of results

All Defra statistical notices can be viewed at:
www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs/about/statistics

Results from the Farm Business Survey, including time series in spreadsheet format, can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/collections/farm-business-survey

The next release is expected to be in February 2025 (business change questions will not be included as these are only asked every 2 years). The definitive publication date will be announced on the research and statistics webpage on gov.uk.

6.2 Contact details

Responsible statistician: Alison Wray

Public enquiries: fbs.queries@defra.gov.uk

For media queries between 9am and 6pm on weekdays:

6.3 National Statistics Status

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. An explanation can be found on the Office for Statistics Regulation website. Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in January 2014. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards (see contact details above). Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Since the latest review by the Office for Statistics Regulation, we have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics, and have made the following improvements:

• Reviewed and improved data presentation to better meet accessibility guidelines.

• Automated production of the statistics using Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP).

• Reviewed and improved accompanying commentary.

7 Technical note

7.1 Survey coverage, weighting and accuracy

The Farm Business Survey (FBS) is an annual survey providing information on the financial position and physical and economic performance of commercial farm businesses in England. It covers all types of farming in all regions of the country and includes owner-occupied, tenanted and mixed tenure farms. The FBS only includes farm businesses with a Standard Output of at least €25,000, based on activity recorded in the previous June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture (this does not cover all eligible farms for Direct Payments nor agri-environmental schemes). In 2022/23, this accounted for approximately 52,500 farm businesses. Between 2019/20 and 2021/22 the samples were slightly smaller as a result of Covid-19 restrictions on data collection. Following contractual changes, the 2022/23 sample was 1,350 farms. Data are collected by face to face interviews with farmers, conducted by highly trained researchers.

Each record is given a weight to make the sample representative of the population. Initial weights are applied to the FBS records based on the inverse sampling fraction. These weights are then adjusted by calibrating certain totals to match published totals from other surveys so that they can be used to produce unbiased estimators of a number of different target variables. Any extreme Farm Business Income outliers are investigated and, if necessary, moved into their own strata and given a weight of 1.

In common with other statistical surveys, the published estimates from the Farm Business Survey are subject to sampling error, as we are not surveying the whole population. More detailed information about the Farm Business Survey and the data collected can be found at: www.gov.uk/farm-business-survey-technical-notes-and-guidance

7.2 Farm type classification

From 2023/24, the classification of farms is based on 2017 Standard Output (SO) 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 SO change can be found on the Farm Business Survey Technical notes and guidance page.

7.3 Farm Business Income

For non-corporate businesses, Farm Business Income represents the financial return to all unpaid labour (farmers and spouses, non-principal partners and their spouses and family workers) and on all their capital invested in the farm business, including land and buildings. For corporate businesses it represents the financial return on the shareholders capital invested in the farm business.

In essence Farm Business Income is the same as Net Profit, which as a standard financial accounting measure of income is used widely within and outside agriculture. Using the term Farm Business Income rather than Net Profit, gives an indication of the measure’s farm management accounting rather than financial accounting origins, accurately describes its composition and is intuitively recognisable to users as a measure of farm income.

7.4 Classification by size of business

Farm business size is measured by Standard Labour Requirement (SLR) expressed in terms of full-time equivalents under typical conditions. They represent the input of labour required per head of livestock or per hectare of crops for enterprises of average size and performance.

• Part-time - less than 1 SLR
• Small - greater than or equal to 1 less than 2 SLRs
• Medium - greater than or equal to 2 less than 3 SLRs
• Large - greater than or equal to 3 less than 5 SLRs
• Very large - greater than or equal to 5 SLRs

7.5 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