Measuring the difference between top and bottom performing cereals and oilseeds farms

Tables below show the difference in income and key variables between top and bottom performing cereal and oilseeds farms.

Cereals and Oilseeds farm business income £/year

Mean farm business income of top performing farms (£/year)Mean farm business income of matched bottom performing farms (£/year)Difference of farm business income (£/year)
169,000 65,380 104,060

Variables between top and bottom performing farms

VariablesMean of top performing farmsMean of matched bottom performing farms
Agricultural output (£'000) 342 257
Wheat yield (t/ha) 8.76 8.00
Average wheat price (£/tonne) 171 161
Economic Relative Size (% of SLR) 88.9 82.9
AES payments (£/ha)  19.95 23.83
Owned land (% of total land) 77 60
Unpaid labour (% of all labour) 68.9 64.4
Total agricultural costs (£’000) 276 337
As a % of total agricultural costs:
Agriculture overheads (%) 44.2 59.3
Agriculture variable costs (%) 55.8 40.7
Seed costs (%) 7.0 5.5
Fertiliser costs (%) 15.4 10.9
Crop protection costs (%) 15.2 11.6
General farming costs (%) 9.8 11.0
Agricultural labour costs (%) 5.0 7.2
Machinery costs (%) 18.9 22.9
Contracting costs as a proportion of all machinery & contracting (%) 35 20

SLR: Standard Labour Requirement

AES: Agri-environment Scheme

Related links

Back to Characteristics of top-performing cereal farms

Read more about the key comparisons between top and bottom performing cereal farms

See what top traits are in cereal and oilseeds farms

Ways you could improve your cereal farm

Back to Characteristics of top-performing farms 2024

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