Census of Agriculture 2020 Detailed Results

Purpose of the Census

This report presents the final results from the Census of Agriculture 2020 conducted by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in September 2020. This work was undertaken within the framework of the statistical programme of the European Union and Regulation (EU) No. 2018/1091. Similar censuses were conducted in all EU member states during 2019/2020 to collect comparable statistics across the EU.

Data Collection

For the Census of Agriculture 2020, the register of agriculture holdings used to contact farmers was constructed by amalgamating the CSO intercensal Agriculture Register and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s (DAFM) 2019 Corporate Client System.

Census of Agriculture questionnaires were sent to approximately 138,000 farmers in the week preceding the reference date of 1^st September 2020 and up to four reminders were issued to maximise the overall response rate. Farmers also had the option to respond to the census using an electronic version of the questionnaire.

Farmers were required to complete the questionnaire under the provisions of the Statistics (Census of Agriculture) Order 2020, (S.I. No 281 of 2020) made under the Statistics Act, 1993.

In an effort to reduce the response burden on farmers, the questionnaire contained no questions relating to cattle and crops as sufficient data is available from existing administrative data sources from DAFM.  

More information and support material can be found at the Census Of Agriculture 2020 web page.

Farm/holding

An "agricultural holding" or "holding" means a single unit, both technically and economically, which has a single management and which undertakes agricultural activities listed below within the economic territory of the European Union, either as its primary or secondary activity:

• growing of non-perennial crops
• growing of perennial crops
• plant propagation
• animal production
• mixed farming
• support activities to agriculture and post-harvest crop activities

Holdings under the headings above accounted for 135,037 holdings in 2020, the results presented in the Standard Output and Agriculture Statistics by Electoral District Chapters are related to all these holdings.  

Results presetned in the Animal Housing and Manure Management, Agriculture Labour Force and Organic Farming chapters are related to holdings that are above at least one of the physical thresholds laid out in Annex 2 of Regulation (EU) No. 2018/1091. 

Agriculture Area Utilised

The Agricultural Area Utilised (AAU) is the combined area under crops, silage, hay, pasture and rough grazing land in use (including fallow land). Areas under roads, tracks, water, bog, marsh, rocks, unused rough grazing land, buildings etc. are excluded.

Farm Size

For analytical purposes, AAU is split into six hectare size bands, these bands are classified as; < 10 hectares, 10 < 20 hectares, 20 < 30 hectares, 30 < 50 hectares, 50 < 100 hectares and 100 or more hectares. 

Region

The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) were created by Eurostat in order to define territorial units for the production of regional statistics across the EU. Ireland is divided into three NUTS 2 regions and eight NUTS 3 regions, the NUTS 3 regions comprise of the counties of Ireland. The Information Note for Data Users: revision to the Irish NUTS 2 and NUTS 3 Regions describe these regions.  

Farm Type

For analytical purposes, farms are classified in this report as one of eight farm types. These types represent the primary areas of specialisation in Irish Farming.  They are derived from groupings applied to a detailed EU farm typology classification system (EU Regulation No. 1198/2014) and are based on the relative economic importance of the various lines of agricultural activity carried out on each farm.  These types are classified as Specialist Tillage, Specialist Dairying, Specialist Beef Production, Specialist Sheep, Mixed Grazing Livestock, Mixed Crops & Livestock, Mixed Field Crops ¹ and Other ².

Family Farms

These are farms which are operated as family based enterprises.

Commercial Farms

These are farms registered as companies which paid all their workers as employees (including management) or farms connected with institutions (e.g. schools, colleges, religious communities, prisons etc.).

Farm Holder

The legal owner of a family farm. For the purpose of this report in the demographic profile of farm holders chapter, gender and age of the farm manger are utilised for commercial enterprises.

Farm Manager

The person responsible for the day to day running of the farm. On the vast majority of Irish farms, the farm manager was also found to be the holder. 

¹ This group includes farms growing various crops (including silage, hay, pasture or rough grazing) but with no dominant crop type.

² This group includes farms specializing in horticulture, fruit, pig or poultry production, mixed crops, mixed livestock and a small number of unclassified farms.

Introduction

The EU Farm Typology Classification System was developed in order to identify and classify relatively homogeneous groups of farms by reference to two economic characteristics of the farm, its type of activity and its economic size. Both characteristics are determined by the application of Standard Output (SO) coefficients, estimated regionally per hectare of crop or per animal, to the individual farm’s crop and livestock activities. In this way, all the farm’s activities can be measured and compared on a standardised basis (i.e. SO). The classification system is used for the periodic Censuses and Farm Structure Surveys, the current series of which are conducted under the Integrated Farm Statistics Regulation (EU) No 2018/1091, as well as the ongoing Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) surveys. A complete description of the Farm Typology system is given in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1198/2014.

Standard Output (SO)

The Standard Output (SO) of an agricultural product is defined as the average monetary value of the agricultural output at farm-gate prices. The SO does not consider costs, direct payments, value added tax or taxes on products. The SO coefficient for each product is determined on the basis of a standard 12-month production period and is calculated as a regional average within each member state. The SOs used in the case of the Census of Agriculture, were referenced to ‘2017’ (i.e., calculated as the 5-year average of 2015-2019 SOs). These values will be updated to take account of economic trends and the frequency of the update is linked to the years in which integrated farm statistics data collections are carried out.