Sunday, 6 December 2009

The Average Age of Hill Farmers

The perceived wisdom is that the average age of hill farmers is increasing out of control and that they are much older than other farmers.  In doing some research for a paper I am writing I came across the Rural Business Research website that provides average age by farm type.  I reproduce the table here:

Farm Type Average age
ALL FARM TYPES
53.30
    Cropping
54.50
       Cereals
54.32
       General Cropping
53.99
       Horticulture
55.74
    Livestock
52.48
       Dairy
51.40
       Grazing livestock (lowland)
54.06
       Grazing lifestock (LFA)
52.15
    Mixed and other types
52.63
       Pigs
48.75
       Poultry
53.93
       Mixed
52.84


 I have not researched this in depth and it is possible the detail explains why this is not as it seems (lies, damn lies & statistics).  However, cheer up hill farmers, you may not be as far out on a limb as you thought you were, mind you the figures do not necessarily change how you feel.
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1 comment:

  1. Lincolnshire AlpsThursday, 07 January, 2010

    Perhaps more concerning is the fact that although this table shows the average age of all farmers to be 53.33 years, a Defra survey from 2004 reported that the percentage of landholders over 65 is 25% whereas only 5% are under 35. However such figures should be used with care as the landholder may not be doing the actual farming.

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