SAC Rural Policy Centre

Farm incomes are a measure of business viability. Monitoring average farm income for different farm types provides a measure of the profitability of different sectors and can assist in understanding and developing the various farm types within Scotland’s agricultural industry.

Overall, NFI shows an average increase per farm across all farm types of £10,000, up from £19,800 in 2006/07 to £29,800 in 2007/08.

Estimates of Net Farm Income come from the Farm Accounts Survey for Scotland, which was based on a sample of 442 farms in 2007/08 and 472 farms in 2006/07. The survey only includes full-time farms above a certain size (over 0.5 standard labour requirements) and covers the main farm types in Scotland, excluding horticulture, specialist pig and specialist poultry producers.

NFI represents the return to the farmer and spouse for their manual and managerial labour and the tenant-type capital in the farm business.