Scots dairy farming incomes expected to halve

18 February 1998

Scots dairy farming incomes expected to halve

By Press Association

THE income of Scottish dairy farmers is expected to fall by more than 50% over the next financial year, the Government said last night.

Scottish Agricultural Minister Calum Macdonald said in a Commons written reply that Scottish dairy farmers earned an average of £30,000 per farm in 1996-97.

This was expected to fall to an average of £14,400 per farm in 1997-98 according to a figures from the Annual Survey of Farm Accounts in Scotland.

Mr Macdonald did not give a reason for the expected income drop but a Scottish Office spokesman said it could be explained almost entirely by a forecast drop in milk prices.

The spokesman stressed that the income figure was not the same as wages but represented a whole range of factors including property prices and subsidies.