Less than 40% of farm managers in England have any formal agricultural training, according to a Government survey published this week.
The report analysed agricultural labour data collated as part of the 2013 EU Farm Structure Survey run in June 2013 by the UK’s four regional departments of agriculture.
The Farm Structure Survey is a survey conducted across the European Union every three or four years as a sample survey and once every ten years as a census. The latest survey was conducted in 2013.
The results are used to assess the agricultural situation across the European Union, to monitor trends in the structure of holdings and to model the impact of external developments or policy proposals.
Key Findings
In England in 2013:
- A third of holders were aged over 65;
- Just 16% of holders were female;
- Half of the male holders worked full time on the holding compared to only a quarter of female holders.
- The youngest holders (under 45 years old) worked on mixed livestock farms or specialist pig and poultry farms.
- 38% of the smallest farms were run by holders over 65 years old. This number decreased to 23% on the largest farms.
Farm managers
Every holding has a manager although in many cases the holder is also the manager.
The survey found that 85% of all holdings in England in 2013 were managed by the holder, while 3% were managed by the holder’s spouse, 6% by another member of the holder’s family and 3% by a person unrelated to the holder’s family.
A further 4% of holdings were managed by a manager on behalf of an organisation – for example, limited companies or institutions.
Shockingly, it also revealed that just 39% of farm managers had any formal agricultural training.
The size of farms is based on the economic value of standard outputs for each enterprise.
Standard outputs represent the level of output that could be expected on the average farm under “normal” conditions.
In the chart below, small farms were those with a standard output of less than €50,000, medium farms were those between €50,000 and €249,999 and large farms were those with a standard output of €250,000 or more.
The proportion of holders aged less than 55 increased with the size of the farm.
Although they made up only one-third of holders on small farms, this increased to about 40% on medium farms and to about half on large farms.
This trend was seen in both England and the United Kingdom.
Workers
The number of people in the farm labour force is equally split between family and non-family workers.
50% of the family workers were female; it compares to 24% of the non-family workers who were female.
