Northern Ireland agricultural incomes in 2021

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has published the first (provisional) estimate for farm incomes in 2021. Revisions have been made to previous years.

Aggregate Agricultural Income

Provisional figures indicate that the ‘Total Income from Farming’ (TIFF) in Northern Ireland increased by 8.3% (8.0% in real terms) from £463 million in 2020 to £501 million in 2021.

TIFF represents the return on own labour, management input and own capital invested for all those with an entrepreneurial involvement in farming.  It represents farm income measured at the sector level. 

Total Gross Output for agriculture in Northern Ireland was 9% higher at £2.43 billion in 2021. There was an 11% increase in the value of output from the livestock sector, while field crops increased by 34% and horticulture was 9% lower. These figures are for the calendar year and therefore they represent the outturn across two harvest years.  

Dairying remains the largest contributor to the total value of Gross Output at £805 million in 2021; an increase of 20% between 2020 and 2021. The annual average farm-gate milk price increased by 16% to 31.53 pence per litre while the volume of raw milk produced in Northern Ireland increased by 3% to 2.5 billion litres.

The output value of cattle was 7% higher at £485 million in 2021.  The total number of animals slaughtered increased by 1.0% in 2021, whereas, the average carcase weights for clean and cull animals were 0.5% higher and 0.6% lower respectively.  These changes resulted in the volume of meat produced being 1.2% higher in 2021.  The average producer price for finished clean cattle was £3.83 per kilogram in 2021 while the average producer price for cull animals was £2.70 per kilogram. These prices were both 11% higher than their respective averages for 2020. In addition to these changes, there were also increases in the number of store cattle imported to Northern Ireland in 2021.  

The value of output from sheep increased by 13% to £95 million in 2021. The total number of sheep slaughtered decreased by 7% in 2021 whereas the average carcass weight increased by 0.5% to 22 kilograms.  Volume of sheep meat produced decreased 7% in 2021.  The average producer price increased by 18% to £5.35 per kg.       

The value of output in the poultry sector increased by 8% to £325 million in 2021 while the egg sector increased by 4% to £125 million. The value of pig output decreased by 2% to £209 million.  All intensive sectors recorded an increase in production volumes, with pigs up by 4%, eggs up by 3%, and poultry up 3% compared with the previous year.  Producer prices in the poultry and eggs sectors increased by 8% and 1% respectively, whereas, the producer price for pigs decreased by 5%.

The total output value for field crops increased by 34% in 2021 to £84 million.  This was mainly as a result of increases in grain prices and yields for cereal crops grown in 2021. The value of output for cereals increased by 50% to £47 million whereas the value of output for potatoes decreased by 2% to £21 million.  Output values for field crops are across a calendar year and include production from two harvests.  

The value of output recorded in the Horticulture sector was lower year on year for 2021, at £87 million. Mushrooms is the largest contributor to this sector in value terms, with an estimated output value of £30 million.

The estimated value of the 2021 direct payments (Basic Payment Scheme, Greening Payment and Young Farmers’ Payment) was £308 million, representing an increase of 4%, when compared with the 2020 payments.

The total value of Gross Inputs increased by 10% in 2021, to £1.72 billion. Feedstuffs costs, which accounted for 56% of the total Gross Input estimate, increased by 14% to £958 million in 2021. There was a 2% increase in the volume of feedstuffs purchased and a 12% increase in the average price paid per tonne.  

The total cost of fertilisers in 2021 increased by 15% with an 8% decrease in the volume purchased and a 26% increase in the average price paid per tonne. There was also an 8% rise in total lime purchases, with the result that total expenditure on fertilisers and lime increased by 16% to £96 million.

Total machinery expenses increased by 8% to £152 million in 2021, mainly as a result of an 18% increase in the cost of fuel and oils.

A detailed document covering the period 2016–2021 and containing all the key figures used to derive TIFF in Northern Ireland can be downloaded from the DAERA website.

Estimates for the United Kingdom will not be released until May/June 2022 and a breakdown of TIFF for the UK will not be available until then.

Farm level incomes

These income results are based on farm accounts collected as part of the Northern Ireland Farm Business Survey (FBS).  This is a representative sample of farms larger than 0.5 Standard Labour Requirements.  The income figures presented are for accounting years with an average end date of mid-February.

Farm Business Income measured across all farm types is expected to increase from an average £34,402 in 2020/21 to £39,741 in 2021/22, i.e. an increase of £5,339 or 16% per farm. 

Farm Business Income is expected to increase (by varying amounts) for Cereals, Dairy and Mixed farm types between 2020/21 and 2021/22.  For these farms, the upturn in their incomes is mainly attributable to higher output prices in the 2021/22 accounting year.  Yield increases also contributed to higher incomes in the cereals sector.  Despite higher output prices, Cattle & Sheep (LFA) and Cattle & Sheep (Lowland) farm incomes showed little change due to the offsetting impact of higher input costs.  Pig farms are expected to show a decrease in farm incomes due to lower pigmeat prices and higher feed costs. 

A detailed analysis of farm incomes by type and size of farm in 2020/21 will be provided in the report ‘Farm Incomes in Northern Ireland 2020/21’ which will be published on the DAERA website in March 2022.

Notes to editors: 

1. A wide range of statistics are available on the DAERA website and also via Twitter: @DAERAstats.
2. Provisional aggregate income figures for the UK will be issued in May/June 2022 on the government portal - Total income from farming in the UK.
3. The Northern Ireland estimates were prepared using provisional figures and are subject to revision when more complete data becomes available later in the year.
4. ‘Total Income from Farming’ measures the return to farmers, partners and directors, their spouses and other family workers for their labour, management input and own capital invested.  It, therefore, represents the total income of all those with an entrepreneurial involvement in farming.
5. Farm level income estimates by farm type are based on the Department’s Farm Business Survey, for which the account year ends on average in mid February, whereas the aggregate income estimate – Total Income from Farming - is compiled on a calendar year basis.
6. Farm Business Income is the return to all unpaid labour (farmer, spouses and others with an entrepreneurial interest in the farm business) and to their capital invested in the farm business which includes land and buildings. 
7. As income estimates by farm type are based on data collected from a sample of the farm population, they are subject to sampling error. For each farm type, Figure 1 shows the estimated average Farm Business Income and the range of values that apply to it, i.e. we are 95% confident that the true average Farm Business Income for the farm type falls within the range shown.  It is important to note that the size of a confidence interval is influenced by a variety of factors such as number of farms sampled and the variability of incomes within sampled farms.
8. For UK statistical purposes, farms are grouped into 10 ‘robust’ farm types which have particular relevance to UK conditions i.e. Cereals, General Cropping, Horticulture, Specialist Pigs, Specialist Poultry, Dairy, Cattle & Sheep (LFA), Cattle & Sheep (Lowland), Mixed and Other.  The system for the classification of farms into these types is based on that set out in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/220 and explained in greater detail in the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) Typology Handbook RI/CC 1500 rev.4.
9. The EU and UK system for classification of farms was revised in 2011.  Farms are now classified in terms of Standard Output (SO) compared to Standard Gross Margin (SGM) used previously.  Further details of the impact of this change are presented in the report ‘Farm Incomes in Northern Ireland 2010/11’ which is available on the DAERA website.
10. For UK statistical purposes, farms are also grouped into size categories based on their total Standard Labour Requirement (SLR).  The total SLR for each farm business is calculated by multiplying its crop areas and livestock numbers by the associated SLR coefficients and then summing the results for all enterprises on the farm.  This is then divided by 1900 to determine the number of standard labour requirements for the farm (i.e. 1 SLR is equivalent to 1900 hours). 
11. At June 2021 there were 25,896 farms in Northern Ireland of which 9,812 were above 0.5 SLRs.
12. The ‘Statistical Review of Northern Ireland Agriculture, 2021’, due to be issued on the DAERA website during March 2022, will contain details of the output, input and income estimates for 2021, as well as information on livestock numbers, crop areas and yields, farm structure, employment and farm business performance.
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14. All media queries should be directed to the DAERA Press Office: pressoffice.group@daera-ni.gov.uk.
15. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.

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