Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Farm Business Survey (FBS) is conducted annually to collect business information from c.2,400 farms in England and Wales. The FBS provides information on the financial position and physical and economic performance of farm businesses, to inform policy decisions on matters affecting farm businesses and to enable analysis of impacts of policy options. It is intended to serve the needs of farmers, farming and land management interest groups, government (both national and European), government partners, and researchers. The primary objective of survey results is to contrast the performance or other business characteristics of different groupings of farm, such as between regions or other geographical or environmental designations, farm types, farm size, age or education of farmer etc. Up to and including the 2001/02 survey, FBS estimates were based on matching of the sample between two adjacent years. Farm weights were still calculated to present a matched sample however. From the 2002/03 survey onwards, matching between adjacent years was dropped altogether, and weights are now calculated for the full sample. The typology used to determine the FBS farm type classification was revised for 2009 onwards. The FBS typology is now based on standard outputs expressed in euros, with a minimum threshold of 25,000 euro (irrespective of the SLR) for FBS eligibility. Between 2009 and 2011, FBS farm type classification has been based on 2007 standard output (SO) coefficients. From 2012 to 2016, FBS farm type classification was based on 2010 SO coefficients, and from 2017 the FBS farm type classifications are based on 2013 SO coefficients. The change in typology has had an effect on the distribution of farms by farm type and income averages. Further information regarding the change in typology is available from the 'FBS Documents' section on the gov.uk Farm Business Survey – technical notes and guidance webpage. The Farm Business Survey is available under Special Licence access conditions. For further details on how to apply for access to the data, see the Access section below.
New edition informationFor the second edition (September 2019), a new version of the FBS 2016-2017 dataset was deposited, derived from version 3 of the FBS2016 database; the database now contains details on tenanted land data (Section R), English data for fertiliser usage (additional data within Section F), and Fully Independent Activities of farmers and spouses (Section K) and Household income (Section N) for Wales. In addition, some corrections have been made to Section I data where some rows had been duplicated on a small number of farms.
Main Topics:
Variables cover general and physical farm characteristics, labour, crops (previous and current harvest year, set-aside, by-products, forage and cultivations); miscellaneous receipts, livestock (dairy and beef cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, miscellaneous livestock), variable and fixed costs, assets, investment, liabilities, income from diversified activities (integrated and semi-integrated into the farm business), farmer and spouse off-farm hours and incomes, subsidies.
One-stage stratified or systematic random sample
Telephone interview
Face-to-face interview
