§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether yields per acre for cereals, and so on, and output per cow in the United Kingdom are greater on large agricultural holdings; and whether he will publish details in the Official Report.
§ Mr. MacGregorLarger cereal growing holdings, which are mostly located in areas best suited to cereals, tend to obtain higher cereal yields per hectare than smaller holdings, partly because they grow a higher proportion of wheat on their cereal area than do smaller holdings. Factors affecting cereal yields are analysed in the report by Cambridge university "Cereals 1979–80".
As regards milk, larger dairy herds tend to produce higher milk yields per cow than small herds, as shown for England and Wales in the report "Milk production 1980–81" HMSO 1982 published by my Department. Copies of the publications referred to are in the Library of the House.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing (a) the number of whole-time and part-time farmers, partners and directors of agricultural holdings of 100 hectares and over and (b)the number of wives or husbands of such farmers, and so on, engaged in farm work.
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§ Mr. MacGregorInformation about the number of persons engaged in agriculture in the United Kingdom is contained at table 5 of the annual review of agriculture 1984 White Paper (Cmnd. 9137). The agricultural census in England and Wales in June 1983 recorded 44,453 whole-time or part-time farmers, partners and directors of agricultural holdings of 100 hectares and over; of these, 9,583 had spoused engaged in farm work. Figures for other parts of the United Kingdom are not available.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will provide figures for the years 1981 to 1983 for England, Scotland and Wales showing the distribution of agricultural holdings by size and tenure, distinguishing owned or mainly-owned holdings from tenanted or mainly tenanted holdings and giving separate figures for holdings of under two, two to 19.9, 20 to 199.9 and 200 hectars and over; and if he will present the figures in the same form as in the Official Report, 22 July 1982, at columns 252–54.
§ Mrs. FennerThe information requested for 1982 is published in table 7.3 of the publication "Agricultural Statistics United Kingdom 1982" which is held in the Library of the House. Revised figures for 1980 and 1981 are provided in tables 7.1 and 7.2 of the same publication. Similar information for 1983 is not yet available.
§ Mr. Wiggin asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will set out a table showing the number of agricultural holdings (a) of 100 acres or less, (b) between 100 and 1,000 acres subdivided into 100-acre bands and (c) over 1,000 acres subdivided into 1,000-acre bands.
§ Mrs. FennerThe information requested for 1982 is published in table 6.1 of the publication "Agriculture Statistics UK 1982" which is held in the Library of the House. Information in imperial terms is not readily available and could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.