The latest Defra-funded report on Organic Farm Incomes in England and Wales has been published. Covering the 2010/11 financial year, the report produced by Aberystwyth University and ORC shows signfiicantly improved incomes for organic cropping and horticultural holdings, while incomes on livestock and mixed farms declined slightly.
In a presentation to the OF&G National Organic Cereals event at Launceston Farm, Blandford on July 5th, ORC Director Nic Lampkin highlighted the results for organic cropping and mixed farms (PDF 558KB). They demonstrate that organic and conventional farms can deliver similar overall financial results per ha, with costs per ha of crop produced typically lower and margins higher on organic farms. But yields are also lower, resulting in higher costs per tonne of crop produced organically, meaning that premium prices are essential to deliver similar overall incomes. In the face of challenging market situations, ways need to be found to reduce costs, especially for machinery and power, and to increase yields. However, focusing on yields for individual crops may be misleading and consideration needs to be given also to the net output from the system, taking account of crops fed to livestock and not available for human consumption. The issue of organic yields has been further explored in the latest Bulletin (108).
Previous years Organic Farm Income reports are also available on-line.
