December land use and livestock figures
December agricultural data is no longer published on this page. It can now be found under the heading Farming Statistics which brings together various farming industry statistics. The latest publication, which includes 2011 livestock data was published on 8th March 2012 can be found on that page. The release also provides information on the publication of December 2011 cereal and hay and silage data.
Land Use and Livestock on Agricultural Holdings at 1 December 2010
December 2010 agricultural data comes from a number of different sources. Crops data and pig data were both gathered by the traditional survey method. However in 2010 the data was gathered on separate forms to allow better targeting of the sample selection. Cattle data comes from the Cattle Tracing System (CTS). Sheep data now comes from the annual Sheep and Goat Inventory. This change in data source is fully explained in the sheep section of the statistical release and a report of the full data source review is available at: December sheep data source review 2010. The data collected helps provide hard evidence on the condition of the agricultural industry.
From December 2011 Defra will no longer collect data relating to land use on holdings at 1 December. A consultation exercise was run to find alternative data sources for December land based data and the AHDB MI/HGCA Planting Survey was identified as a suitable alternative for gathering the same key arable crop data. In order to meet existing data provision deadlines AHDB will run their planting survey early enough to allow results to be released in early 2012. Results will be available at: http://www.hgca.com/content.output/100/100/Markets/Markets/Survey%20Results.mspx Defra will continue to publish December livestock statistics.
December land use and livestock data has many uses, from assisting with animal disease control processes to providing information which is used for management of the EU cereals markets. It is also used heavily by environmental policy makers who assess the impact of CAP reform on the agricultural industry and the landscape.The latest statistics are available for download below.
For more information about this release, please e-mail: farming-statistics@defra.gsi.gov.uk or telephone:++44 (0)1904 455332
Next release date: Release calendar