Larger arable farmers have taken more land out of production this year across England.
According to polling of 1829 farmers from the National Farm Research Unit as part of Kynetec, 14% of farmers have taken some portion of their land out of production this Autumn. 85% said they had not.
Of those that had taken some land out of production, 62% said that this was more than they had done in previous years.
Around 85% of those who have taken land out of production were arable farmers. The farms with more than 100 hectares were found to be taking more land out of production than the farms with less than 100ha.
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Amongst Livestock farmers we see no major difference in farm size for those that have taken land out of production this Autumn.
Arable
The National Farm Research Unit said: "We found that, compared to previous years, the majority of farmers who took land out of production this Autumn removed a larger area of land. This trend was most noticeable among large arable farms.
"While this pattern was observed across all of England, both Wales and Scotland saw no significant change in the amount of land taken out of production."
It comes with the Sustainable Farming Incentive being open in England, while farmers in Scotland and Wales receive direct payments.
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All regions of England had seen a majority of those taking land out of production, and said it was more than the previous year. In the North East, this was at 75%, and it was at 74% in the South West.
In Wales, it was just 28%, and in Scotland there were none – 93% said it was the same, and 72% said this in Wales.
The North West and Eastern regions were at 60%, taking more land out of production.
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