§ Mr. Macleanasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish the income of a small, medium and large farm in England and Wales as an average of all the sections listed in table 27 of the "Annual Review of Agriculture", Cmnd. 9708.
§ Mrs. FennerThe information requested is given in the following table:
Net farm income for different sizes of farm 1984–85 (£ per farm) Size of business Small Medium Large England 3,074 10,535 36,867 Wales 2,834 9,933 22,488 Notes:
- (a) Size groups are as defined in table 27 of the White Paper on the annual review of agriculture 1986 (Cmnd. 9708).
- (b) Figures given in the table include incomes of farm types not included in table 27 of the annual review of agriculture 1986 White Paper because of insufficient sample size.
§ Mr. Macleanasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to what causes he attributes the fact that incomes of dairy farmers in Northern Ireland, as indicated in table 27 of the "Annual Review of Agriculture", Cmnd. 9708, are approximately double those of other United Kingdom dairy farmers; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. GummerNet farm income, the measure used in table 27 of the White Paper on the annual review of agriculture 1986 (Cmnd. 9708), comprises total farm output less total costs except for the labour of the farmer and his spouse. Because net farm income is the residual between relatively large aggregates of output and costs, small changes to either of these components can have a significant effect on the calculated level of income. Weather factors in a particular year can also exert a considerable influence on outputs and inputs and hence on the level of net farm income achieved.
Between 1983–84 and 1984–85, the first year of milk quotas, the value of milk output declined by less in 400W Northern Ireland than elsewhere. This was largely because the drought conditions Experienced in Great Britain during the summer of 1984 were less severe in Northern Ireland. Output from enterprises other than dairying is more important on dairy farms in Northern Ireland than in Great Britain. In 1984–85 the value of this output increased in Northern Ireland but fell in the other countries.
Total input costs on dairy farms were also lower in Northern Ireland than in Great Britain. Given the more favourable weather conditions experienced in Northern Ireland in the summer of 1984, dairy farmers there were able to make large quantities of good quality fodder. This was not the case in Great Britain and feed costs on small dairy farms in Northern Ireland were well below those on equivalent farms elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Labour costs also tend to be lower in Northern Ireland where the farmer's own labour (which is not treated as a cost in the derivation of net farm income) accounts for a higher proportion of total farm labour input.