SCOTLAND'S farm workforce is now the smallest on record, with the latest official figures putting it at 63,400 souls, down by 1,900 since 2015.

The results of the June 2016 Agricultural Census, released this week by Scotland's chief statistician, also revealed a reduction in the area of cereals cropped, a static cattle sector, and small increases in potatoes, sheep, pigs and poultry.

Alongside that 1900 fall in the domestic agricultural workforce, the number of migrant working-days was also down, dropping seven per cent to 430,000. The total number of migrant workers, however, was not collected by the census.

About 80 per cent of the total area of Scotland is agricultural land, spread across 51,900 agricultural holdings. An estimated 6587 of these holdings had tenancy arrangements, down by 22 on last year. This put the total area of land rented at 23 per cent, the lowest on record.

Alongside this, there was a fall in 91 Act secure tenanted land of about 46,600 hectares and an equivalent increase in Short Duration Limited Tenancy land.

Overall, there was 12,400 hectares less ground devoted to cereals in the census year, equivalent to a drop of three per cent, giving the lowest area of cereals reported since 2010. Barley in particular was down by 20,700 hectares (seven per cent), while the areas of wheat remained similar to last year, and oats increased by 5,600 hectares.

Fallow land increased markedly for the second consecutive year, this time up 10,000 hectares to 43,000 hectares.

Potatoes saw a small increase, of 1,800 hectares (seven per cent) to 27,500 hectares, bouncing back from last year’s poor figures. However, that area of spuds is still the second lowest since 1994.

The area of oilseed and of crops for stock-feed decreased again (by 15 per cent and eight per cent respectively), but there were increases in the area of vegetables for human consumption (nine per cent), and of fruit (three per cent). Looking at the fruit sector, the figures showed that the area growing strawberries rose by 54 hectares to 990 hectares (a six per cent increase), but raspberries decreased by 24 hectares (seven per cent) to 330 hectares.

Cattle numbers remained fairly constant at 1.8 million, but are still the third lowest recorded since the 1950s. There was very little change in either dairy or beef numbers. Sheep numbers increased for the third consecutive year, up 125,000 (two per cent) to 6.8 million, although that is still lower than in 2009.

Pig numbers were up 12,500 (four per cent) to 330,000, the third consecutive rise. Poultry numbers increased eight per cent, bouncing back after last year’s 11 per cent fall. The figure of 14.1 million, similar to the longer-term average, included 6.5 million broilers (up 15 per cent) and 6.3 million layers (up four per cent).

The full statistical publications can be accessed at www.gov.scot/stats/bulletins/01250