Most of the main agricultural sectors in Northern Ireland scaled back in 2020, reflecting a yet another challenging year for farmers.
The results of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) Agricultural Census offer estimates of crop areas and numbers of livestock on active farm businesses on the survey date of June 1, 2020.
Online only for the first time
The 2020 results are based on 12,700 completed questionnaires augmented with data from the APHIS cattle tracing system.
This year, in response to Covid-19, the Farm Census moved entirely online for the first time. The questions were also streamlined to reduce the burden on farmers.
A large response was achieved from the online campaign which was followed with focussed telephone calls enabling detailed farm census statistics to be produced.
Main changes
The main changes between June 2019 and June 2020 are:
The total area farmed (excluding common land) was approximately one million hectares (1,016,000ha), a decrease of 1% compared to 2019.
There was a 1% decrease in the number of breeding ewes compared with 2019, with numbers falling to 931,000. Overall, the total number of sheep recorded was just under 2 million (1,960,000) which is a 1% fall from June 2019.
Pigs and poultry
Overall, there was a 1% decrease in total pig numbers recorded in June 2020 to 667,600.
The decrease in pig numbers was mainly as a result of a lower number of fattening pigs. Data on pigs were collected in the census compared to previous years when the Annual Pig Inventory data was used, further detail on the changes will be described in full in the Final Publication.
Overall, there was a 5% decrease in total poultry numbers on farms at June 2020 to 23.4 million birds. Data on poultry were collected in the census compared to previous years when the Annual Bird Register data was used, further detail on the changes will be described in full in the Final Publication.
Cereals
The total area of crops grown in NI in 2020 was 45,000ha – the same as in 2019. The total area of cereals grown in 2020 was down by 3% compared to 2019 at 29,100ha.
Wheat crops fell by 14% to 7,000ha, oats and winter barley remained broadly the same and spring barley rose by 4% to 12,400ha.