Statistics

  • Improving the Speed and Accuracy of Agricultural Statistics

    16th February 2022 by

    Sunrise over a field of vegetable crops demonstrating the dawn of new coding and improving the speed and accuracy of agricultural statistics

    This month, the team are looking at improving the speed and accuracy of our agricultural statistics. They focussed on the computer code and the time taken from receiving data to producing statistics. And, we are learning from gaming and software development. In simple terms, it is a way of coding that removes errors. It also...

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  • Women in Statistics

    25th November 2021 by

    Daoud Sharif and Christina Coakley at the RSS Conference

    RESAS statisticians recently attended the Royal Statistical Society Annual Conference in Manchester. This month’s blog is written by Christina Coakley, Senior Assistant Statistician. Chrissy is now leading the analytical work to replace the June Agricultural Census. She also led the RESAS delegation at the RSS Conference. Here, she talks about her highlights from the conference...

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  • Agricultural Statistics Transformation Programme Begins

    29th October 2021 by

    Beginning next month, my unit is stepping up work on our ‘Agricultural Statistics Transformation Programme’. I previously spoke about the last December Survey and now we are looking at our other data products. By engaging with internal staff and a wide range of stakeholders across Scotland and the UK, we will improve the data we...

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  • Farming Families Wellbeing in the 21st Century

    14th July 2021 by

    Picture of a farming family projecting families wellbeing. Mother and daughter are feeding a cow.

    From farm data to families wellbeing Last month I wrote about our new Scottish Crop Map data. But we are also getting the most from the data we already have. One such project aims to link anonymised farm data to other national surveys and data sets like Scotland’s Census. This will help us look at...

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  • Could this be the last December Agricultural Survey?

    23rd March 2021 by

    Welcome to the first blog on Agricultural Statistics. Through this regular note we will update farmers, agents and other people interested in agricultural food production and associated supply chains on gathering statistics through surveys and other methods. The statistical teams in the Rural and Environmental Sciences and Analytical Services (RESAS) Division support many policy areas...

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  • RESAS: Revised Schedule of Agricultural Surveys and Outputs

    27th April 2020 by

    Rural and Environmental Science and Agricultural Services (RESAS) collect a range of statistical information on the agricultural sector which is the evidence base for the majority of our analysis on agriculture. However, in light of the current guidance from the Scottish Government and the Chief Medical Officer we have had to change our planned schedule...

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  • Scottish Farm Business Income at six year high

    26th March 2019 by

    Incomes from commercial farms in Scotland have gone up in 2017-18, however the latest annual figures shows that agriculture is still dependent on farm subsidies. The average farm income has risen 19 per cent to £35,400, the highest level over the last six years. This upward trend from the previous year shows that the industry...

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  • Weather helps farmers with winter planting

    12th March 2019 by

    The weather in 2018 has caused mixed fortunes in agriculture. Mild weather at the end of 2018 helped increase the area of winter-planted crops and the warm summer led to more production of hay. However the weather appears to have had a mixed effect on livestock farming. Better weather at the end of 2018 led...

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  • Cereal harvest in 2018 affected by weather

    12th December 2018 by

    Cereal production and the area of cereals grown have decreased in 2018. Final estimates for the 2018 cereal and oilseed rape harvest were released today. Around 420,000 hectares of cereals have been grown this year, three per cent lower than 2017. This drop in area, combined with a nine per cent decrease in yield, led...

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  • Poor weather impacted Scottish Agriculture

    9th October 2018 by

    Poor weather affected the output of Scottish agriculture over the past year. Sheep and cattle numbers fell and there were reductions in the areas of cereals and potatoes. However, the area of soft fruit, which is less dependent on weather conditions, has seen an increase. The snow storm in the spring affected sheep numbers, which...

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