Livestock Numbers Increase in 2013

Livestock numbers from the December Survey show that there were 5.3m cattle and calves in England between December 2012 and December 2013, an increase of 0.3% according to Defra. The dairy herd increased by 1.5% to 1.1m but the beef herd continued to decrease by 2.6% to 699,000 during 2013.

There were 3.6m pigs in England in December 2013 an increase of 5.5% since December 2012. Fattening pigs increased by 7% to 3.2m while breeding pigs decreased by 4.2% to 411,000 in December 2013.

The total number of sheep and lambs in England between December 2012 and December 2013 increased by 1.6% to 10.9m. The female breeding stock increased by 6.3% to 6.9m. Other sheep and lambs fell by 5.7% to 4m against the upward trend.

Cereals Farmers See Big Rise In Incomes

The Farm Business Survey results show that income figures have substantially increased in the year ending February 2011. In 2010/11, incomes increased on arable and mixed farms and a smaller increase on dairy farms. However, average incomes fell on beef, sheep and pig farms. Significant variations in incomes exist within the sectors.

Mixed farms saw an increase of 57% while cereals farms increased their incomes by 107%. General cropping farms increases were 80%. The average increase across all types was 33%. In real terms it means a 97% increase for cereal farms, 72% for general cropping farms and a 49% increase for mixed farms.

Over half of cereal, general cropping and dairy farms had an income over £50,000 and a third over £75,000 but more than 15% of LFA and lowland grazing farms didn't make any profit at all and approximately 60% had incomes of less than £20,000. Different farms are influenced by a variety of different factors including size, location and soil type. The variation in incomes also reflects the differences in production costs.

UK Livestock Slaughter Statistics For May

The key points in Defra's latest information on slaughterings of cattle, sheep and pigs for May 2011 are that at 170,000 there was a 4% increase in the number of UK prime cattle slaughterings over May 2010. Beef and veal were 7% up on May 2010 with 74,000 tonnes. Sheep slaughterings were also 4% up on last year at 727,000 head. Mutton and lamb were 4% up with 17,000 tonnes. Pigs increased 3% to 718,000 tonnes compared to May 2010. Pigmeat production was 59,000 tonnes, an increase of 3% on May last year.

Agriculture's June Survey 2010 Provisional Results

The latest June Survey statistics from Defra show the provisional estimates for land use, crop areas and livestock numbers on agricultural holdings on June 1 2010. They give a good idea of trends but they are provisional and could be subject to amendment at a later date.

The agricultural land area in 2010 was 9.3m hectares. The area on agricultural holdings remained unchanged at 8.9m hectares. Common rough grazing remained unchanged at 428,000 hectares. The arable area also remained more or less unchanged at slightly under 3.8m hectares while to total cropping area increased slightly to 3,915,000 hectares from 3,902,000 hectares in 2009 (revised). All regions increased their wheat area.

The number of cattle increased by 1% to 5.5 million. The total breeding herd was up by 0.9% to 1,916,000. There were 756,000 cattle in the beef herd and 1,160,000 in the dairy breeding herd in 2010.

The number of breeding pigs increased to by 1.4% to 427,000 from 421,000. The number of fattening pigs decreased by 2% to 3.2 million. The female breeding herd numbered 351,000 in 2010 and other breeding pigs increased by 10.7% to 76,000 in 2010 which included 15,000 boars. The total number of pigs decreased by 1.6% to 3,630,000.

The female breeding flock remained unchanged at 6.4 million. The fall in the number of lambs from 7.49 million to 7.24 million was a factor in reducing the total number of sheep to 14.1 million from 14.4 million in 2009.

Animal Health Planning Pays

The Farm Business Survey included an animal health and welfare module asking some general questions about animal health planning. It also included more detailed questions on livestock type, expenditure and disease prevention and veterinary expenses.

The analysis carried out on the data collected showed that 73% of farms had a formal written plan for at least one of the livestock species they kept. The principal reason for the health plan was for marketing and farm assurance schemes.

Beef farms with health plans had mortality rates 1.8% lower than farms with no plans and enterprise output (EO) was £10/head higher. They spent £2/head less on vet & med expenses and expenditure on routine vet costs on farms with no plans was double that of farms with plans. A total of 54% of farms with plans were in the low mortality group. Calf mortality was highest in the group with no formal health plans.

Vet & med expenditure on dairy farms did not vary much with economic performance on herd size but the higher performing farms spent more on routine vet services and had the lowest overall mortality rate. The high performance farms were also those with the largest average herd size though they did also have the highest incidence rate for mastitis. The dairy farms with the higher mortality rates spent less on routine vet services and more on non-routine services than farms with lower mortality rates.

Mortality rates on sheep farms without health plans were highest at 7.1% on average. Lamb and ewe mortality was lower overall for farms with formal written plans or instructions and the average EO was £7 higher per breeding ewe than for farms without a plan. Farms with higher mortality rates generally spent less on vet & med than those with lower mortality rates.

Mortality rates on pig farms of all types was 11%. Where the sample was of breeding herds selling weaned or fat pigs the mortality rate went up to 15% and where the holding type was fattening, rearing or other the rate went down to 5%. It was not possible to produce analysis by plan type due to a shortage of the relevant data.

Vets are the main source of information for animal health matters for farmers. Less than a sixth of farmers had specific animal health insurance. The most likely to have insurance were dairy farmers followed by beef, pigs and sheep.