Topic guide to: Farming Methods

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Data on farming methods are derived from a number of data sources.

The annual Farm Practices Survey collects information on a diverse range of topics used to monitor the impact of farming practices on the environment.

Data on pesticides are collected through the annual Pesticide Usage Survey. This collects detailed data on pesticide usage, each year focussing on a specific crop type (for example, arable, horticulture or orchards) in rotation. Data are collected through a personal interview with the holder.

Fertiliser usage is collected through the annual British Survey of Fertiliser Practice, to estimate average application rates of nitrogen, phosphate and potash used for agricultural crops and grassland. Information is also collected on applications of sulphur fertilisers, organic manures and lime.

Agricultural labour force estimates are made through the annual June survey of agriculture. Data are available on the numbers of full and part-time principal farmers plus regular and casual workers.

Agricultural prices data are available through the monthly Agricultural Price Index that measures the relative costs of production (for example, how much it costs for fertilisers, machinery, and labour) against what the farmer receives for his produce, such as cereals, potatoes, livestock, and milk, against a base year.

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Farm Practices Survey

Many of the questions are changed each year as the responses are fairly stable over time.

Topics previously covered include:

• slurry/manure storage and spreading

• waste disposal

• pesticide sprayers

• water quality

• animal health/bio security

More recent questions on animal transportation, castration of lambs, cattle housing periods, computer usage and regulatory burdens on farmers have also been added.

The sample size is around 6,000 and is targeted by farm type and size, to ensure representative data across England. Results are published towards the end of July and a fuller report is published in January. The survey is voluntary but the response rate is still around 50 per cent.

Pesticide Usage Survey

The sample is drawn from the June survey of Agriculture returns, to represent the area of all crop types grown throughout England, Scotland and Wales. Samples are stratified according to region and area of crops.

Data are collected during a personal interview with the farmer. Reserves are used as replacements in case of refusals. During the survey, the interviewer completes a form on all aspects of pesticide usage on the individual crops grown on the holding. A separate form is used for each field.

British Survey of Fertiliser Practice

The sample is selected from the June survey of agriculture population. Holdings less than 20 hectares in size are not included in the sample. Farms are stratified by farm type (cropping, livestock and horticulture) and then by four size groups. The target sample size is 1,500 farms and responses are received from approximately 1,300. Reserves are used as replacements in case of refusals.

To help improve the survey response and to reduce the year-on-year variability, a core of respondents complete the survey each year. Responses are weighted to be representative of the national population by using the inverse of the achieved sampling fraction as the weight.

Agricultural employment

The June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture is a postal survey and collects, amongst other information, data on the numbers of full and part-time principal farmers, regular workers and casual workers employed on agricultural and horticultural holdings. The sample size is between 40,000 and 70,000 holdings (dependent on EU requirements) in England.

Holdings are sampled using a stratified random sample based on farm size. Standard Labour Requirements (SLRs) are used to determine the size of the farm. The SLR is a way of standardising farm classifications and indicates the typical number of full-time workers required on the holdings.

Small farms are sampled at a low rate, and the sampling rate increases with farm size to a near census for the largest holdings. This method minimises the burden on farmers whilst maximising the coverage.

Agricultural Prices Index (API)

The API is overseen by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, to ensure that the rebasing timetable and methodologies used are standard across the EU. The API is rebased every five years and the current base year is 2000=100. The API takes its raw price data from a wide variety of sources, for example, the Home Grown Cereals Authority for Cereals, Agricultural Market Reports produced by Defra for fruit, vegetables and flowers and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform for fuel prices. For a number of the Inputs the ‘raw’ prices are not prices but indices themselves derived from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) Producer Price Index (PPI).

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